


dance with me and shake your bones

by Samirant



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, POV Alternating, because sex comes in all shapes sizes and conditions, everyone's legal no worries, explicit after first chapter, five things fic with more than five things, the soulmarks are basically a plot device, unconscionable abuse of italics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-06-02 13:53:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 34,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19442767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samirant/pseuds/Samirant
Summary: Five timesSix timesSeveral times Brienne and Jaime's friends don't realize they're having sex, and one time they aren't at all.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [angel_deux](https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel_deux/gifts).
  * Inspired by [his sword's twin](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19319776) by [angel_deux](https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel_deux/pseuds/angel_deux). 
  * Inspired by [two halves of a soul](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19022014) by [angel_deux](https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel_deux/pseuds/angel_deux). 



> There are some authors on this site that have inspired me to write again, after a nearly ten year dry spell. Angel_deux is one of those authors and I want to give her my sincere thanks for allowing me to play in her soulmark universe. If you haven't read her **two halves of a sword** series, put this page aside and go there _now_. Read it because it's amazing, and my fic probably won't make much sense without it, but mainly because it's amazing.

It was the sound of whining brakes that broke them apart this time.

Brienne shoved Jaime back from where he’d had her trapped against the counter, his legs still between hers, one of hers hooked over his hip, both of their eyes wide as they tried to suss out if they had heard incorrectly. 

But, no, that had definitely been the sound of Selwyn’s truck coming up the drive. 

“Shit,” Jaime said softly, looking down at himself. “Shit, shit, shit.”

Brienne shoved him completely away. “The table. Sit down!” 

He did, untucking his shirt along the way, and then pretending that his dothraki textbook was what had him so engrossed. For her part, Brienne started noisily pushing pots and pans around the stove top, pulling open the freezer door and sticking her head inside in hopes it would cool off her face. 

When her father finally entered the kitchen, Brienne hoped he only saw picture perfect innocence, his dutiful daughter making dinner while her boyfriend studied at a polite distance. A respectful distance. A distance that couldn’t possibly allow for the groping and rocking together of bodies that had been occurring only minutes before. 

She mumbled her hellos and allowed her father to kiss her cheek before he left to change. 

At the sound of his footsteps retreating down the hall, she chanced a glance at Jaime, who was looking up at her from hooded eyes, a look she’d become very familiar with over the last few months. “No, Jaime. That was way too close.”

Jaime collapsed back in his chair and groaned.

###### 

Something had happened over the summer, a certain madness that Brienne couldn’t begin to explain. Between rec soccer league, with her name emblazoned on Jaime’s back, trips to the coast with friends, Jaime in nothing but swim shorts and a smile, the long late night conversations when he was away on holiday with his family, Brienne found herself _wanting_.

It wasn’t enough to just kiss him anymore, the warm press of his lips to hers, the way he coaxed her mouth open and explored with his tongue, prompting her in return. Before, just holding his hand, feeling his arm around her waist left her heady enough, giddy. Now it was mere moments between acting rationally and then next she knew, her hands were on Jaime and sanity flew out the window.

They’d almost been caught now a countless number of times, in a car before school, at school in an empty room between classes, after at either his house or hers. 

Soon, Brienne knew, it wasn’t going to be enough. It was amazing that their friends hadn’t caught on yet. 

“All I’m saying is that I’m glad you’re friends with her, you keep her grounded, you’ve always got your head on straight,” Robb announced intently as they stood at her locker one day in October. “They don’t get it, it’s way too soon for her, and Theon may be one of my best friends, but that means I know how that guy thinks and that guy…”

Robb shook his head and glared at his sister and Theon as they approached. Sansa saw the look on her brother’s face and steered her boyfriend to keep going on down the hall, Robb following them with a scowl until they were out of sight.

“I think you’re underestimating them. And your parents,” Brienne said with a roll of her eyes. “Didn’t your dad put in a camera at the top of the stairs? And a motion activated light?”

“A guy can get around that stuff if he tries,” Robb said mutinously.

“Come on, you have to at least trust Sansa. Anyway, I mean, I might not even supposed to be saying this, but,” Brienne sighed, “it’s not like anything is going to happen anytime soon.”

“That’s what I’m trying to make sure of!”

She hit his shoulder with a textbook. “Idiot. I mean, with what happened last semester.” Her tone was delicate enough that Robb actually seemed to break out of his sulk. “It may be in the past, but Sansa’s going to need a lot of time, you don’t just get over that kind of stuff. And you _do_ know your best friend, and you know Theon won’t push it. And they’re soulmates. It’s not like either one of them is going to dump the other right after it happens.”

“After what happens?” Jaime popped up from behind Brienne, pausing to briefly kiss her cheek. “What’s up, Robb?”

The two exchanged a ridiculously complicated handshake before Robb replied, “Brienne’s trying to convince me that it’s okay for my fairytale-and-romance obsessed sister to have sex because she’s got her soulmate.”

“ _Is_ she?”

“That’s _not_ what I said.”

Brienne was the one scowling now, but Robb was smirking in Jamie’s direction. “Too bad Brienne’s not so soft in the head, huh, Lannister?”

He dodged as Brienne tried to hit him again. 

“Can’t fight the truth! I know my best friend!” Robb said with a laugh, dancing away. 

They both watched as Robb made his way to class, cackling. 

“That guy is such an idiot,” Jaime said, almost fondly.

###### 

“We should probably talk about it,” Brienne said later that day, after Jaime got out of football practice and hopped into her car, her hands dropping from the steering wheel to her lap. 

“About what, homework? Cersei’s not home, we can do my place today.” Jaime strapped on his seat belt and then reached to fiddle with his phone’s bluetooth.

“About sex.”

Jaime froze. 

Brienne felt her face grow hot, a beacon of embarrassment in the driver’s seat.

“Do you - “

“What do - “

They both paused. Stared. Brienne was relieved to see Jaime looked as awkward as she felt.

Clearing her throat, she asked, “Do you… I mean, do you want to?”

“Yes,” Jaime said emphatically. Then he deflated a little. “But that doesn’t mean you have to, if you don’t want?”

Brienne willed her nerves to calm down, failed miserably and stuttered out, “I do, too.”

“Really?” She’d never seen Jaime grin so widely, except maybe for when she kissed him for the first time. “Like, today?”

“What? No!” Brienne cringed when she saw his face fall. She reached out for his hand and gave it a squeeze, his fingers tangling with hers. “I just mean in the future. The near future, I guess. The very near future.”

“Oh.” Jaime turned and stared at the rest of the football players who were quickly clearing out of the parking lot. He seemed to bounce back quickly, though. “You really want to?”

“Can’t you tell?” Brienne spread her hands helplessly. 

“I don’t know, you always seem to be so,” Jaime ran his hand in front of his face, his open expression turning shuttered after it passed. “I mean, in the middle, when we’re making out and stuff, yeah, I know you’re into it, but then right after, I’m still trying not to make a mess in my jeans and you look so freaking calm.”

“I’m not, I swear I’m not,” Brienne assured him. “What we do, it feels good. It feels _really_ good and it’s all I can do to stop from going any further than we already have.”

Jaime bobbed his head, considering her answer. “I guess I thought I might be the only one going crazy.”

“I’ve been going _so_ crazy,” Brienne said with a relieved laugh. Jaime raised his eyebrows and grinned again, pleased. 

“So you want to do this, huh? Have sex,” he said in a low voice, stirring something in her belly at with the sound of it. She leaned in toward him, as if the timbre of his voice connected to a string on her breastbone, pulling her in against her better angels. 

“Yeah,” she said quietly, just before he kissed her. 

They had to stop when Jaime managed to honk the horn with his knee.

###### 

Brienne wanted to have sex with him.

 _Brienne_ wanted to have sex with him.

Brienne wanted to have _sex_ with him.

Brienne wanted to have sex with _him_.

Jaime felt like he was floating on air. 

His girlfriend, his beautiful, amazing girlfriend, his unbelievable soulmate, who could lay him flat in a heroic fair wanted to lay him flat in a _bed_. All the times he’d wondered if those freckles spread absolutely everywhere, now he was going to _find out_. No more horribly uncomfortable rides home where he rushed to his bedroom for some relief, no more fantasizing based on what he felt through her clothes, no more hoping she’d wear a bikini to the beach instead of a sensible one piece, he was going to _see it all_. 

He was going to have sex. With Brienne. 

There was nothing his father could say over dinner that could possibly burst the bubble of _very near future sex with Brienne_. Cersei’s voice was mumbled warbling in the far background. He wouldn’t have even noticed Tyrion was there if his younger brother hadn’t thrown a green bean that hit him dead on the forehead.

“Hey, space cadet, we’re done,” Tyrion said, pointing out the empty place settings on either side of him. “It’s your turn to clear.”

He was already hopping off his chair and walking to his basement hidey-hole when Jaime remembered it was a Tuesday and that was _Tyrion’s_ day to clear up.

“Jackass!” He yelled after his younger brother. Tyrion’s laughter from the stairs was his only answer.

He had finished with the dining table and rinsing off the last of the dishes to be loaded in the dishwasher when the hours long fugue finally started to lift, leaving two distinct thoughts in his mind.

Brienne wanted to have sex with him.

And Jaime had no idea how to have sex.

“Oh, god,” he muttered, dropping his face down into a soapy hand.

“What is wrong with you today?” Tyrion said from behind him as he dug into a cabinet for a glass and then filled it with water. Jaime didn’t even think he wanted anything to drink, he was just being an asshole and giving him more work to do. He turned to see an outright bewildered expression being sent his way, but couldn’t find the words to lambast his brother, his mind still caught on his horrifying realization. 

Tyrion waited him out for a while before saying, “You’re being so weird. Should I be worried?”

“I’m going to be horrible at sex,” Jaime said faintly.

“With that attitude, yeah.” Tyrion took a sip of water and then paused, almost comically still holding the glass to his mouth. “Wait, say that again.”

“Brienne - “

“No, stop.” Tyrion came over with the empty glass, attempted futilely to put it in Jaime’s slack hand before giving up and putting it in the dishwasher himself. He patted Jaime’s forearm. “Come downstairs when you finish up.”

###### 

She could hardly believe herself. 

Brienne lay face up, starfished on her bed, still agog with the idea that she’d actually brought it up to Jaime. Sex. She told him she wanted to have sex. 

Which she did.

But she hadn’t meant to _say it_.

Brienne put her hands over eyes. It was the madness that had run through her in the moment, watching Jaime approach her car, fresh from the locker room showers, his smiling eyes on hers, knowing they’d be alone, knowing what it was like when they were alone together. She couldn’t kid herself, in the last several weeks the tension had been ramping up between them and she was finding it harder and harder to care. 

But why should she? It was Jaime, her beautiful, heart-stopping Jaime, who bore her sword on his shoulder, who fought for her, even if it was against her own self-judgment. They were going to be together forever, she knew that in her heart, not in a childish way, but with a complete Valyrian-strength certainty. He would never let her go, nor would Brienne let go of him. 

_We’re forever_ , Brienne thought to herself, _and there’s no reason for us to wait if we don’t want to_.

Rising from her bed with purpose, Brienne resolutely set to finish the homework she hadn’t done thanks to her Jaime shaped distraction. It was quick work, far faster than she ever got done those days when they were together and then she focused on making dinner for her father, asking him about his day when they sat down to eat and glossing over her own when he asked in turn.

It was when she returned to her room that Brienne found herself at loose ends. She looked hopefully in her book bag for anything she had missed, disappointed when there was nothing. Her phone held no messages, not even from Jaime, but he usually didn’t call until right before they went to sleep. She opened her computer to see if there were any interesting developments with Margaery’s twitter, even. No updates. 

Standing in her room now, nothing to distract her, Brienne had to admit that the flutter in her stomach could not be ignored. 

She was going to have sex with Jaime.

Heaving out a breath, Brienne walked into her adjoining bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror. Her reflection looked no different from that morning, or the day before. Or the day before that. Big lips, prominent teeth, freckles upon freckles. Tall. Wide shoulders. Small breasts. 

Looking down at herself, Brienne put her hands over her chest. Jaime’s hands were only slightly bigger than hers, usually perfect for holding as they walked down the hallway, the right size to dominate their friends when they played sand volleyball. He never made her feel delicate, but she didn’t want to be. They felt equal. 

He’d touched her before, held her before, and while she had been shy in the beginning and then relished in the way his hands sent a thrill through her body, he’d never seen her completely. She’d never been naked with him, never been naked with anybody. Brienne scrutinized the image before her; annoyed, she shoved her shirt over her head, revealing her sports bra, ruffling her hair. With a bravery she could only pretend, she pushed down her jeans and took in the sight. This is what Jaime was going to see. But not quite.

She doffed the sports bra, and her plain cotton underwear. 

There. 

“He loves you,” Brienne told her reflection. The girl in the mirror looked uncertain.

“He loves you,” Brienne told her more firmly. “He says it all the time.”

Jaime said he loved her freckles, he loved her strong shoulders and her long legs. He loved her loud laugh, the laugh that put her full lips and big teeth on display. He touched her like he meant it. Brienne knew he meant it. 

She looked at the girl in the eyes, the blue eyes Jaime always said were the best he’d ever seen. She yearned for that girl to understand that everything was going to be okay.

The knock at her door startled her from her self-contemplation. Her father’s voice had her scrambling for her robe. He was knocking again when she opened the door, still tying the sash around her waist. 

“Hey,” she said, a little breathlessly. 

Selwyn didn’t say anything at first, looking somewhat unsure as he peered over Brienne’s shoulder to her empty room. Brienne turned to see what he was looking at, but nothing especially strange caught her attention, only her flung open closet, her soccer kit spilling out, having landed haphazardly where she’d thrown it when she got home. Her bathroom door was ajar, but thankfully the clothes she had shed were pushed into a nondescript pile. 

“Dad?”

He cleared his throat and said, “Ice cream. Wanted to see if you wanted some.”

“That sounds great.” Brienne looked at him more closely, confused by the way his shoulders seemed to relax. “I was getting ready for a shower, but I’ll be down in a few.”

“That’s good,” Selwyn said with a small smile. “Chocolate!”

“Chocolate!” Brienne cheered feebly in return, and cocked her head as her father hesitated again before heading back to the kitchen. 

Closing her door and putting her forehead against the wood, Brienne knew two things: she was going to have sex with Jaime and it was _not_ going to be at her house.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A tiny subplot snuck in, so this section came out longer than I intended, and added a chapter to my non-five chapter five things fic. I'm sure you're furious.

Despite their decision and the shy, knowing smiles they exchanged every time they met up, Brienne and Jaime had gotten no further in their plans. Between soccer and football practices, tests and training for fairs, a solid week passed without even a moment for a quick grope in a supply closet. When she wasn’t feeling slightly relieved, Brienne thought she might explode.

Then an afternoon came with a torrent of rain, and Sam let everyone know at the lunch table that soccer practice had been cancelled; Brienne immediately felt a frisson of anticipation run up her spine. 

Though it might have been her cell vibrating in her pocket. Holding at it under the edge of the table she read, **tonight?**

Sparing a quick glance at Jaime’s smiling face across from her, she bit her lip and wrote back, **_Don’t you still have practice?_**

**don’t care i’ll skip**

**_You can’t skip._ **

**watch me**

**_Jaime._ **

**Brienne.**

**_I don’t want to be the reason you get in trouble._ **

**totally worth it**

“Are you guys texting each other?” Sansa leaned over and Brienne held her phone close to her stomach in response. “You guys are so cute.”

“So cute!” Robb put his chin on his fist and batted his eyes at Brienne. Sansa stuck her tongue out at him; Brienne barely held back from doing so, too.

“Ignore him, he’s just mad that Talisa isn’t talking to him again, because he’s stupid even when the universe hands him his soulmate on a platter,” Sansa said acidly. 

“Things can be complicated for soulmates, same as anyone else,” Robb shot back, his face coloring as irritation came to his eyes. 

“I know that, I have one!” Sansa exclaimed. “Not that you respect that at all!”

Brienne tried to find a word edgewise in the argument that followed, miserably reminiscent of the interactions Robb and his sister always seemed to be having as of late. It always came down to the same things, Robb’s unyielding attempts to keep his little sister in a safe, protective cocoon, and Sansa’s resentment of it. The rest of the table, bored of yet another Stark showdown, determinedly looked away from each other and kept eating.

She’d almost decided to give up entirely, looking back to her phone when she heard her name.

“Brienne’s not like that, she and Jaime aren’t all over each other all the time!” Brienne could only be thankful that Robb said it in a hiss instead of vocalizing it to the entire cafeteria. She averted her eyes from them, even from Jaime, hoping her face didn’t give away the blatant inaccuracy of his statement. 

“You’ve seen Theon and I kiss two times. Twice!” Sansa threw her hand up, pointing a pair of vehement fingers into the air. “And I KNOW you’ve done more than that with Talisa!”

Robb veered back as if he’d been struck. He said nothing as Sansa continued, “Just because you’re having a hard time doesn’t mean you can take it out on us! So what if Theon and I have kissed? So what if Brienne and Jaime are waiting? Our relationships are none of your business, so stay out of it!” 

Sansa pinched her lips together before slamming her chair back and stalking off. Theon got up much more slowly, turning to Robb and only saying, “You can be such an ass sometimes.”

Robb’s only answer was to leave, as well.

###### 

Brienne had tried to lure Sansa out of the bathroom, to no avail, in the break before her two last classes of the day. Theon sighed when Brienne emerged alone, but agreed to head to class like Sansa said he should. 

Regretful, but not wanting to be any later either, Brienne made her way down the emptying hallways. She hadn’t realized her phone was still in her hand until it started vibrating; had it not shown an off center photo of Jaime’s face, smushing a kiss into her cheek as she giggled, she wouldn’t have answered. 

“Hey,” she said softly.

Jaime sighed on the other end. “Ran into my coach. He said practice is still on and my ass is grass if I don’t go.”

“I really doubt he put it like that.”

“Close enough. Is it just me or does it feel like the universe wants me to have blue balls forever?”

Brienne laughed, slamming a hand over her mouth when it echoed in the now vacant halls. She didn’t answer his question, choosing to believe it was rhetorical. “Aren’t you supposed to be in class?”

“Yeah, but I figured you were still with Sansa, I can tell them the coach kept me. You’re going to her place, aren’t you?”

She felt something soften in her chest at that. The mild disappointment in Jaime’s voice had nothing on his understanding of her. Sometimes Brienne had to marvel that her soulmark was on a person who knew her so completely. She supposed that was the point, but still; it didn’t seem everyone as lucky. 

“I think I should, just to check on her,” Brienne admitted. “Today was worse than usual.”

“Sometimes I wish you were a worse friend.”

“No, you don’t.”

“No, I don’t.” Jaime took a deep breath and let it out. “Rain check?”

“Literally and figuratively,” Brienne replied.

“Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

###### 

Catelyn dropped her head down when her front door slammed open and closed, twice in quick succession, then once more with care. It was a sound that had become all too common in her household in the last few months, as always accompanied by thundering footsteps up the stairs. Quieter steps followed, those she knew belonged to Theon as he walked into the kitchen on his own to pass through to his lodgings in the basement. He gave her a tired little smile, a bit embarrassed, mostly sad, said hello and kept on going. 

Only this time, another figure followed him, another just as weary and uncertain. Brienne.

“Hello, dear,” Catelyn said warmly, the young woman’s presence a welcome surprise. Serendipitous, even.

“I…” Brienne paused, searching for the words, landing on a helpless look instead. 

“I know,” Catelyn said with a shrug of her shoulders. She motioned for Brienne to take the seat next to her at the island where she had been planning her grocery list; she reached out a hand and rubbed Brienne’s back, pulled her in for a hug, a gesture she hoped Sansa would allow her to convey later, when her door was unlocked and she finally allowed her mother in. “Give her time. Both of them.”

Brienne looked at her hands. “I don’t understand why they’re being like this. It’s just been getting worse.”

Catelyn knew, or at least she thought she did, and as much as she didn’t feel Brienne should have to bear any burden in this, she said, “Sansa’s always been such a sensitive soul. Between this and… well, Robb’s never been used to being the odd one out.”

“Odd one…” Brienne trailed off, perplexed. “That doesn’t make any sense. He has Talisa.”

“Not everyone has the same journey,” Catelyn corrected her gently. “I suppose you know that as well as anyone. And I don’t believe my son quite knew what to expect when he met his soulmate. Nor do I think he knows how to handle the existence of her. It’d be one thing to struggle with that, but to have two of his closest friends seemingly so content in their relationships, well…”

“But Jaime and I had a terrible beginning! And Sansa, with -”

“I know,” Catelyn murmured. Gods, did she know. 

Catelyn contemplated at times, when left to her darkest thoughts, if she and Ned had tempted the Seven by choosing to love outside theirs intended by the universe. But Brandon had been so set in his ways, so resistant to making space for Catelyn in the life with which he was comfortable; Ned’s soulmate lived across the sea and had already started forming a family of her own, having lost hope he would ever appear. The fact that Catelyn and Ned found each other, fallen in love, had seemed a blessing, but she wondered if they had just stayed a curse that befell their children instead. 

She shook her head to clear away the thoughts. This was not something for Brienne to fix. As it was, she had already been given a charge to handle something that was for Brienne in particular. “In any case, I’m glad you’re here. Your father called me the other day.”

Brienne had formed a particular trait over the years, in fending off the cruelties of other children, where her face became still as stone, placid yet impliable. But Catelyn had known Brienne for too long to be fooled, could read the wariness around her eyes, the way her jaw tightened. 

Taking her silence as invitation to continue, Catelyn said, “I don’t mean to embarrass you, or your father, but I feel for him. He has done an admirable job raising you, such that I would be so proud as to call you one of my own. I suppose I do, as it were. There are things, however, for which he feels… unequipped to address.”

The pretense fell. Brienne laid her head down to the countertop and groaned. “I knew it. He was being so weird. What did he say?” She popped up, wild-eyed. “What does he know?”

“It’s not a question of how much he knows, more like he wants to make sure you’re all right.” Catelyn patted Brienne on her nearest shoulder. “He was concerned that you and Jaime spend a lot of time alone, unsupervised. And, as he said it, he remembered how quickly things went for him when he met his soulmate at a younger age.”

“We haven’t, I mean, we didn’t. Not yet?” Brienne said sheepishly.

“But you’re going to.” It wasn’t a question. She’d seen Brienne and Jaime together enough, the way they had fallen into step with each other, facing the world side by side. It was what she had once dreamed of when searching for her own soulmate, what she had mourned when it hadn’t come to pass. 

“Yeah,” Brienne answered with a frustrated sigh. 

Catelyn studied the girl, this young woman before her. She considered the things that had been said to her at that age, the tumultuous inner thoughts of someone just embarking on the winding complexities of the world. She could approach this as the mother she had always tried to be for Brienne. Or. 

To the sticking place.

“I just have to make sure. Is it something you want,” Catelyn asked seriously, “or is he pressuring you, in any way?”

“No,” Brienne replied firmly. Not quickly, but surely. “If anything, I’m the one who brought it up.”

 _Of course it was_ , Catelyn thought to herself, relief unlocking her ability to do the next thing. Smiling quietly, she pulled her purse off the island and stood. “Come along then.”

Brienne stood automatically, confusion flitting across her features.

“You need a chance to ask your questions, any and all possible questions that can come to mind, in a little more privacy than I can give you in the family kitchen. And then we can enjoy a bit of shopping.”

Brienne watched as she stuffed her half-empty list into her bag before texting Ned to bring pizza home for dinner. 

“For groceries?”

“No, dear, not groceries.”

###### 

Two damned weeks. 

It had been that long since Brienne had sat next to him in her car and lobbed the _let’s have sex_ grenade in his direction. The resulting explosion had left him out of sorts, swerving between fantastical elation and debilitating self-doubt on what seemed an hourly basis. Tyrion, for all his… help, had taken to watching Jaime cautiously, all the laughter and teasing from that first night of discussions fading as if he expected at any second that Jaime would simply stand up one day with a roar, swing Brienne over his shoulder - or dive into her arms, he was all right with either one - and spirit away into the nearest empty room, never mind where they were.

Until, finally.

“What in the world…” Jaime glanced over at Cersei and Tyrion one morning, who appeared as bewildered as he was at the large gathering of roaming students outside of their school, some police cars taking up the space in the drop off zone in the front. 

“Excellent,” Tyrion whispered from the back seat, followed by a flurry of faux-typewriter clicking from his phone. He emerged from the screen, triumphant, just as Cersei parked. “School’s cancelled. Looks like someone’s prank may have gone too far, there’s some exploded toilets inside. Bronn says it has the signs of a classic cherry bomb.”

“You’re joking,” Jaime said, only half-listening as he scanned the crowd for a messy crown of blonde hair that stood above the rest, “they’ll cancel classes for that?”

“Bombs. In toilets.” Tyrion snorted derisively. “They can’t make us stay, that’s simply unsanitary.” More rapid clicking continued. “And that’s my day set. Bronn’s going to give me a ride home, we’ll have the run of the place if you don’t mind. Or even if you do, I don’t care. Shae’s already on her way, too.”

Cersei just gave a disgusted noise before exiting the car. As soon as she did, Tyrion shot out a hand and gripped Jaime’s shoulder tightly before he could leave, as well.

“All right, you listen to me, because if you don’t take advantage of this, I will kill you in your sleep and call it mercy,” Tyrion said in a dead-serious, rapid fire sort of way. “I’m going to go meet Bronn, and Shae, but we are not going to the house. But Cersei will think we are there. And will Cersei willingly go where Bronn is?”

“No,” Jaime said slowly.

“No,” Tyrion agreed. “So?”

Jaime felt his stomach flip.

“Mercy death. With a pillow. I may not have your muscles, but I will find a way to do it, I swear to the old gods and the new.” With that, Tyrion jumped out the back of the car and sauntered away to meet Bronn as he approached. 

It seemed like seconds. It seemed like hours. Jaime sat there long enough to feel a hopeful little bubble form in the middle of his chest and then burst suddenly, spurring him into action. 

He pulled out his phone. 

**where r u? don’t make plans!**

**_In the lot closest to the soccer field._ **

**stay there, let me do the talking**

**_So the usual then._ **

Jaime shoved through the crowd of students, catching pieces of conversations as he went, plans made as the news of cancelled classes were confirmed and students giddily began deciding how to spend their day. 

The whole day.

His heart was fit to burst when he found Brienne surrounded by her friends. Their friends. Theon had an arm casually slung around Sansa’s shoulders, Jon and Sam staring intently at the same phone screen, Robb focused on bouncing a soccer ball from knee to knee; Brienne stood chatting with them each in turn and he simply stood for a moment, watching her in the early morning light, and felt something within him ease. 

“Hey,” Jaime wrapped his arms around her waist, giving her a brief peck on the cheek. “I called Goodwin, he said we can come over early, he doesn’t mind.”

“Goodwin?” Gods, she was terrible at subterfuge. He loved her so godsdamn much. 

“Yeah, remember he had a new longsword for you to try out? He said we can practice as long as we want.”

“Oh, but we were thinking of going to get breakfast, then maybe meeting up at Theon’s,” Sansa said with a slight pout.

In that brief span, the penny appeared to have finally dropped. Brienne had stiffened slightly and sounded a little wooden when she said, “I’m sorry, Sansa, but I’ve been hoping to see Goodwin for a while now. I won’t be able again for a couple weeks at least.”

“Ugh, fine, but I call dibs on the crown the next time you win a melee, Jaime has enough already.”

“Dibs are denied. I will never have enough,” Jaime said, his smug grin meaning more than the girl could ever possibly understand. He was dragging Brienne away even as she said her goodbyes.

###### 

His room, as ever, was slightly disastrous. Jaime tossed his cleats into the closet, tidied his desk, cleared his bedside table of old water glasses and stuffed dirty clothes under the bed. Next, he eyed his bed critically and decided he had enough time to change the sheets, finally slowing down enough to smooth out the wrinkles. He was cueing up the playlist on his computer that Tyrion had shown him all those days ago when the doorbell rang.

Brienne had dropped him off almost an hour before, insisting she would return, that she had to run by her house first. The hour since had been wracking for Jaime’s nerves, fretful over plans that were lost, his ideas to present flowers, treat her to a nice dinner out, anything to make it more than, hey, empty house, let’s get to it. 

But then he opened the door and she was standing there. And none of it mattered. 

Jaime guided her in, shutting the door and then stopping there. Holding both of Brienne’s hands in his, seeing the nervousness written all over her face, Jaime said, “We have all day.”

He saw her throat work, gulping in air. “Yeah, lucky break, huh?”

“We don’t have to do anything you’re not ready for.”

“We don’t have to do anything _you’re_ not ready for,” Brienne said back, the challenge in her voice rising to the occasion. 

“Oh, believe me, I’m ready,” Jaime said with a grin. 

Brienne looked down at his hands, her blue eyes traveling back up to his face. “Me, too.”

He led her up to his room.

Toying with the edge of her shirt, after toeing off her shoes to sit with his by the door, Brienne walked to his bed and turned to look back at him. Jaime took the time to shut and lock the door, just in case, before walking over to join her. “I have been going insane over this.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Thinking about you, here. I honestly don’t know how I’ve been able to function the last couple of weeks. Tyrion’s resorted to death threats.”

Brienne cocked her head at him. “Tyrion knows?”

“What doesn’t Tyrion know?”

She made a face as if saying, _that’s fair_. 

“After we first talked, I kind of… freaked out?” Jaime looped his arms around her waist, bringing her closer. “I’ve never done this before, you know.”

“I haven’t either,” Brienne said, as if he didn’t already know, and she knew it. “What did Tyrion say?”

“A… lot of things,” Jaime said carefully. He laughed to himself, and admitted, “He gave me a crash course in sex ed, if you can believe it.”

Brienne laughed aloud. “What?”

“There were diagrams,” Jaime said, just to hear her laugh again, “and he made me do a review a few days later, to make sure I ‘retained the knowledge’.”

She was standing in his arms, laughing helplessly, her eyes lit up in a way that he tried to induce every damn day he was lucky enough to be by her side. She looked happy, thrilled even, when she said, “You were nervous!”

“Were nervous? I’m still nervous,” Jaime replied and Brienne laughed once more, her forehead falling on his shoulder. “I’m fucking terrified I’ll make a fool of myself.”

Brienne drew back and looked at him straight on. “Not possible.”

“Entirely possible,” Jaime disagreed, “but I’m leaning into it and hoping for the best.”

“Well, that’s encourag-”

Jaime stopped her words with a kiss, unable to hold back a moment longer. Brienne swayed and he gathered her up closer, as tightly as humanly allowable, his hands splayed on her back as he encouraged her mouth to open to his. Brienne’s hands came up to his face, her fingers firm on his cheeks, the sword won calluses on her palms as familiar as anything else about her. 

He started clutching at her shirt without realizing, noticing only when her hands joined his, lifting it up and off, just long enough before he could draw her close and kiss her again. The sensation of her full lips on his, her tongue curving against his own, tasting her unique Brienne-ness, almost overrode the new sensation of the smooth skin of her waist, flank, the smooth skin of her back under his hands. When they broke apart to breathe, he took her in, saw the two thin, lacy bands that came from up between her shoulder blades, flowing over her gloriously freckled shoulders to join a band of blue lace that covered the subtle curve of her breasts. 

“Pretty,” he said dumbly, bringing up a hand to run his finger under one of the straps, the sensation of her skin beneath his finger almost halting his exploration entirely. In all the times he’d imagined her, he had dismissed ideas of lacy, fussy underclothes, convinced Brienne found such things entirely useless, but here she was, surprising him even now. 

“Yeah,” she said back shyly. Her hands came up, almost as if to cover herself, before going back down. When he looked back at her face, Jaime saw the uncertainty in her gaze; for a brief moment, a streak of self-loathing ran through him, knowing that he had once been one of the many voices that had told her that she wasn’t meant for pretty things. 

But this wasn’t the time for that. He wouldn’t let it be.

“You look amazing,” he told her, wholeheartedly, voice thick. He wanted to joke, to tease her, to say something like that maybe he should have put on his best underwear for her, too, never mind that he actually had. Instead, he brought his hands up to her breasts, running his thumbs over her nipples, looked her in the eye and said, “You are amazing.”

She skirted her eyes away, her face flushing more before looking back. “And you’re overdressed.”

“I can fix that,” Jaime pulled his hands off her, tugged off his shirt, before immediately putting his hands back on her again. “There.”

Chuckling lowly and then not at all, Brienne ran her palms down his arms, then up his shoulders and down his chest, her fingers grazing his stomach and making everything, from the tips of his toes to the hair on his head, stand at attention. He bit off a groan when she purposefully lingered on his abdomen, her fingertips drawing fine circles on his skin. 

“You have a ridiculous body,” she told him, half breathless, “muscles on muscles.”

“Look who’s talking,” Jaime shot back with affection, running his own hand down her flat belly, “I need a quarter, we can see who can bounce one higher than the other.”

Something he did caused her to giggle, so he did it again, stroking right next to her bellybutton, before some wild, brave thing inside him guided his hand beneath the waistband of her jeans, under some lacy feeling underwear, to where her legs joined and waited already wet to his touch.

Her breath hitched in his ear, his name on a choked whisper. Jaime tilted his head, mouth meeting hers even as she gasped, as his fingers delved into her pussy for the first time, slowly and with purpose.

 _Use your words_ , an annoying little voice in the back of his head said insistently, the timbre of said voice going resolutely unrecognized, _if nothing else, you know how to use your godsdamn words_. 

“I want to do everything with you,” he told Brienne, fingers running up and down, searching out and teasing out what must be her clit, gauging by her new gasp. Another lesson. Brienne’s hands went to his arms, squeezing tightly, in response to what he said or his actions, Jaime didn’t know. “I’ve thought about this for weeks. Months. I didn’t want to push you, but I’ve been dreaming of you all this time, for years, I just didn’t know it.”

“Jaime.” Gods, her voice like that, he felt his own jeans start to pinch horribly. 

“Come on,” he told her, pulling his hand out of her pants, using those same fingers to unbutton them, and then his own. Brienne watched him as he shoved down his jeans, kicking them aside, following him along with her own; he was right in what he felt earlier, her lacy underwear matching her bra, but then that was gone, too, Brienne pulling it up and off, tossing it aside before he could even try to reach. Her hands went to her hips to rid her underwear, undoubtedly, but it must have been the expression on Jaime’s face that stopped her.

Even words failed him.

Her chest was as freckled as the rest of her, her nipples almost the same pink as her lips and Jaime knew in that instant he would never forget the similarity, not even if Brienne was fully bundled in her armor and with a winter cloak on top. He’d always remember what she looked like in this monumental instant, chest breathing deeply, a touch rapid as she watched him take her in, breasts rising and falling, inviting his mouth in, which he did once the thought passed through his brain.

He tasted her skin, rolled his tongue over one nipple, then the other, heady at the sensation of them tightening further at his touch. Brienne’s hands carded through his hair, gripping when he pulled, sucked, switched and did it again. He made an awkward attempt to pull her in closer while still ducking down, mouth and tongue exploring her breasts, but he felt the moment when Brienne went rigid, then relaxed and he knew she had felt him, hard against her thigh. 

Then she was drawing away, using her strong arms to pull herself back onto his bed, his beautiful Brienne, clad only in her underwear, her mouth wet and open, her breasts rosy from his attentions. 

She was still wearing her socks. 

So was he. 

Jaime couldn’t help the grin that came on his face; Brienne followed his eyes and laughed along with him when she saw what he did. Before she could reach down, Jaime pulled off one sock off her foot, then the other, tossing them back over his shoulder with flair, delighted when it made her giggle, before tending to his own. Then he looked straight at her, face going serious as he put his hands on either side of her hips, asking silently.

Brienne nodded, and shifted her hips up.

Her legs seemed unending in the best way, from the reveal of her freckled hips, the slope of her pelvis and down her long thighs, her cute knees, her graceful, muscled calves. He fumbled his grip on one side of her underwear, then the other, bungling an otherwise simple task, distracted as his attention caught on all he’d never seen before. Brienne had to shake them off one ankle when his fingers ran up her calves, under her knees, touching along the light tan line left from her soccer shorts. 

_Brienne is naked in my bed_ , Jaime thought suddenly. 

“You’re naked in my bed,” he said softly, awed. 

She pulled at his wrists, her expression urgent, voice lost but saying everything with her eyes. He saw when she got shy again, backing away as he climbed up after her, pulling the sheet down so she could hide her legs underneath, much to his dismay. But then Brienne’s eyes were on him, following down his body as he crawled closer, her hands twitching and then on his waistband, tugging his underwear down as far as his knees, from there Jaime pushing them off completely, trying to balance on his knees beside her and then Brienne’s hands were _on him_.

Jaime’s eyes slammed shut at the sensation of her grip on his cock, light at first, tentative, trying not to fall forward as Brienne finally explored him in turn. This was nothing like it felt the scant times she palmed him through his jeans, how his own hand felt when he needed relief. He didn’t know what she would do next, how to respond to one hand holding him, carefully beginning to jack his cock, the way his skin was almost singing, electricity following when her other hand grazed over his hip bones, down his thigh on the outside, then running up the inside, brushing his balls and causing his hips to jerk in response. 

It was almost too much, too soon, and he had to grab her wrists, heavy breaths mumbling his words, “Hold on, gotta… hold on.”

He opened his eyes to find hers, the blue almost swallowed by black, filled with astonishment. Shocked at what, he didn’t know. That he wanted her? That his body showed it? He laid down beside her, their gaze unbroken, even as he shimmied under the sheet to join her. Tugging at her to come closer, Jaime rested his cheek in his hand, his elbow digging into the mattress; with the other he touched her breasts again, the sensation still new, still colossal. Brienne looked up at him from where she lay on her back, that disconcerting look still on her face. 

“I want you. This. I need you to believe me,” Jaime told her quietly.

“I do,” she whispered back.

“I need you to believe that this is it. You’re it for me,” Jaime insisted anyway. 

“I do,” Brienne said more forcefully. She softened, closed her eyes and swallowed. “It’s just a lot. This. You and me, here. I didn’t know it would feel like… this.”

He felt a sudden ache in his throat, because he’d misunderstood her, that she’d been able to say what he’d been feeling all along, what he hadn’t known how to put into words, what the change they were making together meant, right there and then. 

Nodding, Jaime apologized by bringing his mouth to hers, deepening it as his hand drifted down again, reaching between her legs, his middle finger drawing down her slit and sliding back up, testing, retreating to watch her face for reaction. He listened to her breath catch as he added a second finger, not going in, but rubbing along her lips, the slickness of her skin, crooking his fingertips and finding that _worked_ for her, making her startle and blink rapidly.

“Tell me,” he said gutterly, almost not recognizing the pleading note in his own voice. He could only make shapes out under the sheet, felt her legs open up more so he could use his whole hand to cup her and then press the heel in, something that got her hips to stutter, something to tighten just beyond his fingertips. “There?”

She nodded, head jerking up and down.

Brienne didn’t speak, but she told him anyway, grasping his wrist and fingers, maneuvering them so he could get her to start to pant a little faster, squirm her hips a little bit more disjointedly. He could feel his hand beginning to cramp under hers, as her grip grew tighter the more he followed her command; he wished he could see the beautiful blue of her eyes, but she kept them shut, her face growing taut in concentration, her mouth dropped open to release small, cut off moans. 

Jaime couldn’t help himself, he drew closer to kiss her open mouth, but also pressed his cock against her thigh, sliding against her as she started pulsing her hips faster, stealing just a hint of the pleasure she experienced when a shudder took over her whole body, trapping his hand between her legs, moans spilling from her throat in earnest. 

He waited until her thighs relaxed apart, a long sigh coming from deep within her, eyelids still shut, face smoothing out. Nothing more than a handful of seconds, but what felt like an eternity as he tried not to lose himself against her leg. Jaime eased back and said, “One minute, don’t go to sleep, just give me a second.”

He scuttled off the bed, barely giving himself a moment to be annoyed for nearly forgetting. Pulling the box of condoms out of his desk drawer, Jaime called back, “I swear, I’m going to be right here, don’t go to sleep!”

“I’m not,” Brienne said back, almost lazily, a sated tone to her voice that he’d never heard before and wanted to immediately hear again.

Jaime stopped himself from jumping back on the bed, knowing instantly that landed badly would be… bad; instead he carefully crawled up, trying his best not to let his cock even graze the sheet, not wanting to risk that that could be all it took. Even more tempting was the sight of Brienne splayed out in his bed, sheet halfway up her body, breasts still unveiled, flushed to match her face, a slightly goofy smile on her mouth. 

He was helpless to it, shoulders dropping, relaxing the slightest amount and he held up the condom for her to see. 

“Yeah,” Brienne said on another long sigh. 

“Oh, gods, yes,” Jaime said, ripping it open and taking a slow, deep breath before rolling it on, feeling strangely shy as he felt Brienne’s eyes on him while he did it. He could almost understand why she had chosen to get under the sheets in the first place and found himself joining her underneath again, hitching them up his hips.

It was a position he’d never been in before, a sensation he never could have anticipated, and he realized why his brother had been so vague when it came to this part. There was no way anyone could explain how the moments suddenly flowed: the feeling of the girl you love smiling at you as you awkwardly scoot up a soft mattress, the way her legs go over your thighs, her calves against yours, running your hand over the wet and private place that she’s letting only you see, the brief struggle to decide where to put your hands, flat on the bed beside her head, or one elbow down and the other hand on her breast, the way your body just wants to rest on hers, feel every bit of her skin pressed against every bit of yours, deciding on that and then the realization that you didn’t know the right angle...

Jaime did all of these things. 

Every single one. 

He chuckled, and so did Brienne. 

Rearing back, Jaime pressed her legs open again, wordlessly asked for her guidance again, and she did, inviting him in, accepting him in small stuttered movements, until he was deep within her, his heart in his mouth, his pulse bounding all over his body, in contrast to the slow pulsing pulls of her body as he drew back and then pushed back in, as he basked in doing it again. His body falling forward into Brienne’s welcoming embrace. 

Realizing his eyes had closed, so he opened them and saw her looking up at him, her eyes warm, tender, _perfect_.

Jaime wanted to hold on, he agonized for it, but that was all it took, just Brienne’s eyes on him, knowing she had chosen him, had taken him in, how she was tight and clenching and warm all around and he came.

###### 

“Oh, gods,” Jaime mumbled into her shoulder. “Oh, gods, I’m so sorry.”

Brienne knew, instinctively, that laughing would be the worst possible thing to do. Almost impossible, if she wanted to anyway, considering the weight of Jaime’s body on hers. 

“That was so fucking fast, that is so embarrassing,” Jaime moaned. 

She ran her hands up and down his back, bringing up one to stroke at the back of his head, which he still resolutely refused to pick up. He was still inside of her, such a strange feeling, feeling full where she had never felt empty before, his cock still twitching slightly. She knew she’d have to get up soon, to mind the condom, that she’d need to use the bathroom. Catelyn had been very firm about it.

But for now, she just held Jaime close, starting to murmur into his ear, “Don’t be sorry. I’m not sorry.”

“No?” He sounded so hopeful, so hesitant. She loved him so much.

Prodding his face up with her shoulder, Brienne waited until he finally lifted his head enough to look her in the eye again. She smiled, kissed him, before replying, “You said it yourself. We have all day.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bronn didn't particularly care why he was asked to do it, only that he would reap rewards of a day off and some extra cash in his pocket. I'd like to think Tyrion joined in that night, whistling cheerfully as he strategically chose how many and which bathrooms would do the trick, including the soccer and football locker rooms, just to make sure. Cherry bombs, indeed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note the change in the summary. I've been waiting to do that since I posted this fic, because did you really think J/B were only going to have sex five times? You're adorable.

Waking up the morning after The Day, Brienne almost thought she had maybe dreamed it all, the hours spent in Jaime’s arms, kissing, laughing, fucking, and getting a third of the way through a movie on his laptop before fucking again. It seemed unreal, but then Brienne rose from her bed, feeling a mild ache in the cradle of her hips, the new soreness in her thighs, the twinge in her jaw. In the mirror, she saw again the marks Jaime had left on her collarbone and on her breasts, could nearly feel his lips on her skin and his fingers going inside her again. It had really happened. 

Brienne grinned at herself.

###### 

Jaime was waiting outside her house when she came out the front door, shrugging on her backpack and holding a bit of toast between her teeth. She was sure she looked absurd, but Jaime’s face lit up with the strength of a thousand golden suns as he leaned against his car, a slow grin growing across his face as she walked closer. 

“You aren’t supposed to be here,” Brienne told him, mumbling around the last of her breakfast, only half meaning her chastising tone. Silently, she could only think, _I know what you feel like inside me_. 

“I know, but then I decided that was dumb,” Jaime said cheerfully. “Nobody’s going to know if we walk in together, you gotta know that.”

“You say that now, but then you’re going to make that face, that one, right there, that smug Jaime Lannister face and someone will ask what we did yesterday - ”

“And of course I’ll tell them that I had you naked in my bed for most of the day and I loved every fucking second of it,” Jaime finished for her. 

Brienne tried and failed to glare at him, certain she was blushing to the roots of her hair. Jaime huffed out a laugh and pulled her in by her belt loops, resting her hips against his. “I always look smug, Brienne, I just have a really, really good reason for it now. Besides, if I waited for you at school, there’s no way you’d let me do this.”

Her question of what _this_ was, was answered by Jaime tilting his head in, almost leisurely pressing his lips to hers. It was a new kiss, one they’d discovered laying side by side, in the quiet moments in between; open mouthed, languorous, with the promise of more. They’d never kissed like that before, when everything seemed to be a frantic rush to a sudden stop. But then, in Jaime’s bed it had felt like they had all the time in the world. 

It left Brienne slightly fuzzy in its wake when Jaime pulled back, the nip of his teeth on her bottom lip sending a tingle throughout her body. She felt him tighten his grip on her belt loops and unconsciously drifted in further. 

“See, now you wouldn’t have let me do that before first period,” Jaime whispered, his forehead against hers, “and that would have been such a fucking waste.”

“I shouldn’t even let you be doing it on my front lawn,” Brienne said with a groan, thankful that she knew her father had already left for the day. 

“We could go inside,” Jaime said jokingly, though something in his tone caused a spike of heat deep in her belly. “I don’t mind being late.”

As it turned out, for once, Brienne didn’t either.

###### 

It’s a domino effect, in a way, one Brienne had never anticipated. Prior to sleeping with Jaime for the first time, in her examination of their decision and in her preparations, she’d underestimated what it would mean. Before, she’d thought that sex would just be another aspect of their relationship, something that would maybe even calm them down, since they’d finally release the tension they had been building up since they’d gotten together. They’d be less frantic, she’d supposed, the madness sated and sanity restored. 

(She wanted to laugh at what a naive idiot she had been. Sex with Jaime Lannister was never going to _add_ to her sanity.)

A week later saw her at Jaime’s house, hopping away from his hands as she tugged her underwear back on.

“I have to go.” 

“No, you don’t.”

“I really do.”

“You really don’t.”

“Margaery’s going to be upset if I’m late, Jaime, I need to go.”

Jaime made one last grab for her, grousing when Brienne skipped back and resumed searching for her clothes. Sighing dramatically, he collapsed back onto his pillows. Naked. Jaime and nudity had become a common theme in her life as of late and Brienne was certain he agreed with her thoughts that he wore it especially well. She was pretty sure it’d even been her handiwork this time, but everything seemed to blur together between the moments they realized they were alone and then - ta-da! - naked Jaime. 

She watched him out of the corner of her eye, as he finally looked away from her, reaching across his bed for something on the side table, the long length from the stretch of his arm to the tip of his toes causing Brienne to falter as she started pulling on her jeans. Jaime saw it and smiled in a way that made her squirm where she stood. 

“No,” Brienne shook her head forcefully. “Not again.”

He held up her phone and that smile got distinctly sharper.

###### 

_**marg soryhave 2 cancl** _

_**SO sorry, phone’s being annoying.** _

_**Jaime made plans for us to go to Goodwin’s and didn’t tell me, I’ll perhaps be free in an hour?** _

_**A couple hours.** _

_**I’ll call you tomorrow.** _

###### 

Brienne never thought of herself as someone having a great deal of _limits_. There were times, of course, where she felt honor-bound to stand by her word; if she made plans, she was there when she promised. If she told someone she would call, their phone would be ringing at the appropriate time. If any one of her friends even knew that she and Jaime were sleeping together and were able to ask, she’d tell them that she didn’t _mean_ for it to happen, the way everything tipped over and fell out of her brain when Jaime looked at her, his green eyes knowing and she felt an answering ache from deep within her. 

But he did. And she did. And so it just kept happening.

###### 

“Where have you been,” Sansa grumbled, storming in Brienne’s front door on a Saturday afternoon. “The fair was done ages ago. I’ve been texting you.”

“Sorry, I fell asleep,” Brienne said roughly, hoping the rumpled state of her hair and clothes gave credence to her half-lie. She had been asleep, but for only mere minutes; Jaime was the lucky one, having dozed through Sansa’s repeated ringing of the doorbell. Brienne desperately hoped that he would stay that way. 

“How’d it go, did you win?” Sansa asked, somewhat absentmindedly, politely. 

“Yeah, I did, it was great.” And it had been, another sure victory, Jaime cheering for her in the stands. Even better was standing in the changing rooms with him later, her bloodlust for the melee becoming lust for him, their hands down each other’s pants, mouths panting against one another, the crown of flowers slipping off Jaime’s head. She’d driven them back to her house to find it empty and just gone on from there.

Brienne finally took in her friend’s wringing hands and nervous pacing. “Is everything all right?”

“I have a problem. It really shouldn’t _be_ a problem, but it’s somewhat delicate,” Sansa replied reluctantly. “So I could really use your opinion.”

“Yeah, sure.” Brienne waved Sansa to follow her to the kitchen, luring her farther away from her bedroom, and offered her a drink.

Sansa only rolled the proffered soda in her hands before blurting out, “I think I found Sam’s soulmate.”

Brienne blinked in surprise. “Oh. Wow, that’s great.”

“It would be,” Sansa hedged, “except for where I met her. It was at group, this morning.”

The glad words Brienne had thought to say sank like a stone instead. Sansa’s group, as they referred to it in polite shorthand, was the abuse survivors support meeting she’d taken to visiting regularly, at first weekly and then, as time passed, less often. They’d all taken it as a good sign, though it was always a painful reminder of what Sansa had been through. 

“She seemed really sweet, but she didn’t say a lot,” Sansa said, resuming her pacing. “We were getting set to leave and she was putting on her coat and I saw it on her wrist, just like Sam’s.”

“That’s… that’s definitely complicated,” Brienne said slowly.

“I don’t know what to do,” Sansa said passionately. “All I could think was, I have to tell him, and I was going to call, and then I thought, well, what if she isn’t in a place to meet Sam, you know? But if I kept it from her, and from Sam, that would make me a horrible person, wouldn’t it? Who keeps soulmates apart if they can help it? And so, I thought of you.”

 _What a thing to be known for_ , Brienne thought wryly. 

Sansa looked dumbstruck by her own words and quickly said, “I’m sorry, that was… I just don’t know what to do, Brienne.”

Brienne sighed and considered the situation for a few minutes, glad that Sansa gave her silence for it. When she finally gathered her thoughts together, she said, “You’re right, it might cause more harm than good, depending on what this girl has been through. So I think you should ask her first, next time you see her, if she’s open to it. If she’s amenable to meeting Sam, that’s when you can tell him.”

“Isn’t that unfair to Sam, though?” Sansa asked, distress in her voice. “To keep her away?”

“You’re not not telling him to hurt him, or control him,” Brienne said carefully, “if anything, you’re trying your best to be kind to them both. How much worse would it be if they just ran into each other randomly? Sam wouldn’t know to be careful, as gentle as he is anyway.”

“He’s such a good person,” Sansa agreed.

“Which means he’ll wait as long as he needs to. And he’ll understand that you didn’t mean any harm,” Brienne assured her. 

Sansa dropped into a chair, resting her head on her crossed arms, red hair splaying out. “Soulmates are so much more difficult than I thought they would ever be. Theon was too afraid to say anything for more than a year, you and Jaime went through the ringer and Robb...”

Lifting her face and rubbing at her forehead, Sansa muttered, “He and Talisa broke up again.”

Brienne grimaced. 

“He’s being absolutely insufferable about it, too. Already started up on that whole, ‘I don’t care about soulmates anyway,’ nonsense, even though I know he does. What’s worse is that he and Talisa are so well-suited when they aren’t arguing. It shouldn’t matter, but I know he’ll be a complete ass when he finds out another one of his friends might have found their soulmate.”

“At least there’s still Jon?” Brienne hazarded to ask.

Sansa raised both hands in the air, showing two sets of crossed fingers. “Here’s hoping.”

###### 

It was an absolutely wretched feeling, being brought down to earth with the knowledge of the pain her best friend was going through. Brienne scoured her memory of the last month, her interactions with Robb colored by her fear that he would discover her and Jaime’s secret, and realized that they’d barely actually spoken of what was going on with either one of them in ages. 

Ashamed, and resolute, she waited for Robb outside of the locker rooms after their next practice. When he emerged, she gave him a pointed look and patted on the hood of his car, where she sat so he would join her.

“I’m fine,” was the first thing he said. 

Brienne shrugged restlessly at him. “I’d really like to believe you.”

Robb propped himself up on the hood, throwing his bag at their feet and sighing gustily. “Honestly, Brienne, I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Can you just tell me what’s going on with you?” Brienne asked softly. “I know we haven’t actually talked in ages, and I’m sorry-”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Robb interrupted. “I’ve always said that I didn’t have use for soulmates and that hasn’t changed.”

But it had changed, Brienne knew. Talisa didn’t go to school with them, but Brienne knew how Robb had been so excited over her in the beginning. She had even come over to the Stark’s over the summer and, while reserved, had been friendly with everyone. Somewhere along the way, though, she’d stopped visiting as often, something Brienne, in her Jaime-induced haze, hadn’t really caught onto at first. 

“Besides,” Robb said with an air of forced casualness, “it’s not like it’s the end-all, be-all of everything. My parents aren’t soulmates and they’re perfectly happy. Happier than Jon’s parents, definitely. They’re soulmates and Jon’s dad is still married to someone else.”

It was an unkind point to bring up, the inferred knowledge of Lyanna’s affair with her older soulmate, who gave into family pressure and stayed with his first wife. Nobody liked to bring it up to Jon, who’d been shuttled back and forth between his parents until he got to grade school and finally started refusing to go. He hadn’t had much of a relationship with his father since then.

Disappointed in her best friend for using Jon in such a way, Brienne said, “That’s really unfair, Robb, and that doesn’t mean it’s like that for everyone.”

“You mean it’s not like that for you,” Robb said shortly. “Look, I know you’ve got your perfect relationship and you spend all your time staring longingly into each others eyes and all that shit, but in case you haven’t noticed? That’s like the fucking exception to the rule. And I really don’t appreciate you sitting here and pretending that it’s not.”

Brienne turned her head away, hurt at the sharpness in Robb’s voice, worsened when he pushed off the car and picked up his things. He sounded resigned, almost apologetic, when he added, “I told you I didn’t want to talk about this.”

Unable to find her voice to speak, Brienne nodded briefly.

“Just, you know, let’s just go. I’ll give you a ride home.”

Swallowing thickly, Brienne stood and said, “That’s okay, I’ll wait for Jaime.”

“Yeah, figured as much,” Robb muttered. Brienne winced, but he didn’t stop, only threw his bag into his car, started it and drove away.

###### 

She sat on the curb in front of the locker rooms for at least another half hour, caught up in her thoughts, half angry at Robb for his assumptions, the other half feeling unhappy that their conversation had gone bad from the outset. There hadn’t been a time in the last ten years of their friendship she’d felt such a fissure between them and she was sorry to realize that it had formed without her knowing. 

But she knew she couldn’t be sorry for being happy with Jaime, for being glad for having Jaime. The fact that Robb didn’t comprehend how much Jaime meant to her maybe meant Robb didn’t know how to feel that way about Talisa, that something had gone wrong between them that he wasn’t ready to talk about. That, Brienne could respect, because it wasn’t like anyone could have rushed Jaime and her along to their own realizations in the first place. 

Sighing heavily, Brienne looked around the mostly empty lot; Jaime’s car was still parked nearby, but she’d seen the football players filtering out one by one over the time that she sat there. One of them, a tall red-headed boy that was a friend of Jaime’s as much as anyone else had been before they’d gotten together, was passing and she flagged his attention.

“Addam! Is Jaime still around?”

The other boy backtracked to her and gave her a reluctant nod. “Yeah, I think he’s still working out. Coach got on him about some stuff during practice, I don’t think he was very happy about it.”

 _And the night just gets better_ , Brienne thought sourly. Thanking Addam, she walked to the weight room, the sound of clanking metal coming clear once she walked through the door. In the otherwise empty room, Jaime sat at the row machine, pulling steadily, unaware of her presence.

She waited until he’d finished a set of reps before saying, “Hey.”

Jaime jumped in his seat, but smiled when he saw her. “Hey. Wait, was I supposed to give you a ride home?”

“No, but I need one anyway.” Brienne approached with her hands in her back pockets. “I stayed to speak with Robb. It didn’t go very well.”

Standing, Jaime wiped his face with a towel and came closer. “So we’re both having a shitty night. You all right?”

“Yeah, I think,” Brienne replied with a halfhearted laugh, allowing Jaime to pull her close and briefly kiss her despite his sweatiness. She’d seen him worse than this. “What happened with you?”

Jaime raised his right wrist in the air and sighed, the scars from his surgeries frank in the fluorescent lights. “Still not at a hundred percent. Coach is pissed, what else is new?”

“Sorry,” Brienne said softly, taking Jaime’s right hand between both of hers, stroking the scars with her thumbs. “You okay?”

“I think I’m more bothered that he said that I shouldn’t have been fighting over a girl, that maybe then I’d still be a prospect for recruiters,” Jaime said, with faint bitterness. Brienne felt her stomach drop and he must have seen it because he went on, “Not that I give a shit about recruiters. Never have. Football’s fun, but it’s not everything. I just didn’t like that he tried to blame you for something I’m not even a little sorry for.”

“You should be sorry,” Brienne chastised him lightly, “the whole fight was stupid.”

“But where would we be without it?” Jaime said, a rakish grin taking over his face as he tugged her near again. “We almost took down the Mountain. I would have ridden a high for years on that alone, never mind that I got you out of it.”

Brienne laughed again, her spirits lifted by Jaime being so… Jaime. He kissed her again and said, “Give me a few, I’ll get cleaned up and we can get out of here.”

“Is there anyone even here?” Brienne asked, looking around as he led her to the locker room adjoining the weight room. 

“Please, there was an angry Lannister in the locker room, everyone knew to clear their asses out as soon as possible,” Jaime said dryly. 

Brienne just raised her eyebrows at that and took a seat on a bench as Jaime pulled a towel from a clean laundry pile, making a suggestive face at her as he pulled off his practice uniform. She just pursed her lips and shook her head at him, finding it a little difficult to keep the laughter from shaking her chest. 

“Had to try,” Jaime said with a snicker of his own. 

It was only a few minutes before he re-emerged from the showers, his hair wet and eyes dancing, bringing her back to that time in her car more than a month before, the same sight making her mouth run dry, her chest tighten. Brienne ran her eyes over him without shame, feeling that pull within her that had become so frequent in the time since. 

Jaime’s green eyes brightened when their gazes locked. His cock twitched and she could already feel the weight of it in her hand. “Really?” He asked, almost breathless. “Here?”

Brienne was, in some insane, absurd way, about to say yes when she deflated. “Can’t. Period.”

“Well, that’s a little mean, looking at me like that and then, no, _period_ ,” Jaime said, a bit sarcastically.

“No, you idiot, I got my period this morning.”

“Oh,” Jaime stopped short. “I mean, that’s good, you know, in theory. But… I can work with that. If you want.”

Brienne felt her mouth drop open. It took her a few seconds to pull her thoughts back together. Naked Jaime was still before her, after all. “I’ll think on it. That’s a little bit more than I think I can do right now?”

“All right,” Jaime said with a sly grin, as if already knowing she’d give in eventually. Truth be told, she knew she would, too.

But there was something about that grin, and the otherwise silent locker room, Jaime standing before her, loving her even when she said no. Brienne almost felt as if she was standing beside herself, watching as she tilted her head at Jaime and beckoned him over with a nod. 

Jaime’s eyes went wide, but in that moment clearly knew better than to speak, though he let out an inadvertent whimper as she took him into her hand and started running her fingers along his hardening cock. 

The first time she’d done this, on their day, she’d been shy and uncertain. It was clear that Jaime was aroused by her, but she’d never seen an erection in person, let alone put her hands on one. He’d been patient with her, though, guiding her hand with his, showing her where to put pressure with her fingers and palm, how to twist her hand as it traveled up and down. She’d added her mouth later and had felt an unexpected rush of triumph when Jaime had nearly jackknifed where he lay, fingers clenching on the sheets. It hadn’t been the last time she’d done it, either.

All the little tricks and instructions, the knowledge she’d gained from his expressive body, Brienne used now, sliding one hand up and down Jaime’s cock, the other running up the plane of his abdomen to pinch at a nipple, something that made him jolt as much as it did her. He gasped when she took the heavy weight of his cock onto her tongue, let out a strangled moan when she sucked him in deeply, her hand stroking faster past where her lips could reach. She moaned in response, which only made him shake, a tremor that grew more pronounced when she looked up and caught her gaze with his. 

Jaime lasted longer than their first, seventh, umpteenth times, but soon enough she could feel the tightening of his balls under her hand, hands that she moved to grip his ass as she began sucking with intent and then he was spilling in her mouth, her swallowing motions causing his hips to spasm, bringing her attention to how he had his own hand fisted in her hair. Jaime loosened his grip, but pulled her up by her shoulders, still shaking and unaware of his strength when he pushed her against the lockers and kissed her deeply.

Brienne gripped both sides of his head between her hands, kissing him back as fiercely, the wave of satisfaction and power she got from feeling his pleasure under her hands, on her lips and tongue, making her forget a little longer where they were, what they were risking. 

“You - are - fucking - incredible,” Jaime said into her mouth, airy words spaced between their lips meeting, the taste of him still on her lips, something she was still stunned to know that he didn’t mind at all. 

It was longer before their kisses grew less frenzied, more measured, to the point where Brienne began to feel the uncomfortable metal against her back, when she began to remember their surroundings. Her voice was faint, a little raspy when she said, “We should go.”

Jaime put his head against her collarbone and nodded, his chest still striving for breath and hips pressed to hers, his softening cock in the crease of her thigh. He didn’t say anything, only held her close as his body relaxed against hers. No longer a new feeling, but one she hoped she would never take for granted.

 _This_ , Brienne knew it without question, _I’ll never be sorry for this_.

###### 

The lights in each room of the Lannister mansion were shining, making the lawn before it glow despite the late hour. Fireworks were already being popped on the front lawn, amusing Tyrion with the idea of his father’s reaction to finding scorch marks on his precious landscaping. It was easy to raise his father’s ire, at least for Tyrion, but he knew that throwing a New Year’s party would get him in plenty enough trouble that the lawn wouldn’t matter much in comparison. There was only so far Tywin’s temper could go before his brain imploded and Tyrion was ever tempted to find out what exactly that threshold was. 

Tyrion wandered from room to room, raising his glass to friends as he saw them, passing Ros and brushing his lips against hers before continuing on. It was a shame that Shae couldn’t make it, but it certainly simplified who he would be with come midnight. Bronn was making out with someone in the corner already, though it was doubtful he’d still be it the same girl’s arms when everyone broke out into auld lang syne. 

Moving on, Tyrion smiled when he saw Jaime and Brienne sitting on the couch, surrounded by friends. Jaime’s smile was open and happy as he tugged his girlfriend in to himself and Brienne dropped her cheek to his chest in return, her own happiness on full display. Margaery Tyrell was giggling on Brienne’s other side, probably delighting at her own audacity of attending a Lannister party despite Cersei’s continued disdain. Hell, that was probably the biggest draw of it all, much like Tyrion’s eagerness to see his father’s twitching eye. 

Around them were Renly, Loras, Sansa, Theon, Jon and Sam, almost the whole motley crew. Tyrion had seen Robb at one point and wondered at his conspicuous absence here. All the same, he looked on the scene with gladness. A year before he’d watched Jaime and Brienne’s dance, circling closer and closer to one another and now here they were. Tyrion couldn’t help but feel a great deal of pride and relief at the person Jaime allowed himself to be, what Brienne had brought out of him. 

Leaving them to their company, Tyrion went to refresh his drink, finding Cersei with her own soulmate, Oberyn. Now that, Tyrion thought with reluctant amusement, was a relationship a bit more complex than that of his brother’s. He watched, fascinated as Oberyn whispered in Cersei’s ear, making a telltale, and frankly unsettling, smirk come to her face, before he turned to the girl on his other side, Ellaria Sand. 

_What would father say_ , Tyrion snorted to himself, _if he learned not one, but two of his children enjoyed the polyamorous life?_

Head implosion.

Or so Tyrion hoped. 

But he was saving that for a special occasion.

It was a curious situation: Oberyn had come as a package deal, telling Cersei in no uncertain terms that he had loved Ellaria Sand before his soulmark emerged and he would love her still, regardless. For her part, Ellaria had already bluntly admitted that if her soulmark ever did show up, she would have it removed, promptly. So it was up to Cersei to decide if she could work with that and she, remarkably, almost unbelievably, had. 

Jaime was happy and in love with Brienne. Cersei shared her soulmate with a sultry Dornish girl. The world had gone topsy turvy in less than a year and Tyrion was enjoying every damn second. 

Tyrion watched as Oberyn and Ellaria melted into the crowd, then looked at his sister as he poured more liquor into his cup. She had a contemplative look on her face, utterly calm and baffling to him. He couldn’t help but ask, “How do you have a New Year’s kiss between three people? I imagine some logistics need to be worked out beforehand.”

Cersei rolled her eyes. Classic. “As if you don’t already know.”

“I don’t, actually. I may date two different girls, but it’s never been a,” he twisted his hand in the air in a suggestive manner, “group effort.”

“Not for lack of trying, I’m sure,” Cersei drawled. 

She had yet to actually insult him. Miraculous. 

“I’ll blame the liquor for this, but how does it _actually_ work,” Tyrion asked. “Because the Cersei I’ve always known would never have shared what was hers with anyone else. She actively worked against it. But it seems somehow the jealousy you always saved for Jaime has frittered away instead of latching on the next viable candidate. Just poof, into thin air.”

She answered at first only with a dramatic sigh and Tyrion began to content himself to live without the answer when she said, “It’s different. With Oberyn. He’s my soulmate and that means he’ll always be there, no matter where things take us. It’s… freeing.”

Tyrion could appreciate that, he supposed. She’d always harnessed Jaime to her side, a deep-seated fear causing her to almost suffocate him with her neediness. It was obvious in retrospect that Cersei had known from the moment the sword shined on his shoulder blade that she would lose Jaime and had tried, fruitlessly, to stave off the inevitability. If Oberyn Martell, someone provocative and interesting and strong-natured, would nevertheless always be drawn back to her, Tryrion could see why she would allow herself to loosen the reins. 

Raising his glass to her in a toast, Tyrion said, “Many happy returns, sweet sister.”

“Oh, yes,” Cersei replied with a gleam in her eye as she observed the crowd around them, her eyes catching on someone before she laughed, a little mean-spirited. “It’s Jaime you should feel sorry for.”

Tyrion paused, tilting his head to one side in questioning.

“Well, I do,” Cersei insisted with the same edge in her tone that she would never manage to completely shake. “I bet he’s going mad, if he can even contemplate it, but what do you expect when he’s matched with an _innocent_ such as her? The gods have a fucking hilarious sense of humor sometimes.”

He wanted to smile, but knew she’d take it as agreement, as opposed to his absolute godsdamn delight at her obliviousness. Tyrion always appreciated irony in action. Instead, Tyrion dipped his head and made his way back to their guests, leaving Cersei far away before he bent over to laugh and laugh and laugh.

###### 

The sounds of the party continued, despite the clock striking twelve some time before. They’d told everyone that he was leaving to drop her off, but instead Jaime stood between Brienne’s legs as she sat on the edge of his desk in his dark room, the drink in his system helping him stay in a nebulous, almost suspended state as he kissed her slowly, carefully.

They’d kissed at midnight, amongst their friends, a brief, warm kiss that probably looked chaste from the outside, but sparked a promise inside of him, knowing that she’d be with him all night for once. He wasn’t sure when he’d be able to look her father in the eye again, but the man had sighed and told Brienne she didn’t have a curfew when Jaime had picked her up, much to their astonishment. 

So, here they were. With a full night ahead. And he had plans.

The first of which was already in action, as his fingers methodically unbuttoned Brienne’s top, his hand going inside to caress her breasts. She whined into his mouth as he held and rolled her nipples between his fingers, her hips grinding forward against him. 

Jaime leaned back, taking in her parted lips, the way the pupils of her eyes were dilated in the dim light of his room. If he hadn’t been hard already, that certainly would have done it. Licking his lips, he pulled at her belt and zipper and then put his hands under her ass, encouraging her to lift up so he could pull off her jeans and underwear in one fell swoop. It left only her parted shirt, and his wonderment that he hadn’t been wrong and she’d actually forgone wearing a bra altogether.

“You are always full of surprises, aren’t you?” Jaime asked, relishing in the crooked smile Brienne gave him in return. He pushed off his jeans and then returned his lips to hers when she began to speak, managing to shake his head as he skimmed his hands down her sides and thighs, stroking her skin in the way he knew would make her breathe a little faster. 

“I never get to take my time,” he told her. “No complaints. Never. But tonight I can. Will you let me?”

Brienne bit her lips together, catching onto his hint, and nodded. 

He kissed her for a while longer, stirring her reactions with his fingers moving about her skin, hands curling in her hair before hitching her knees up and pressing his still covered cock against her pussy. There was heat there already, from the friction, from her, but he was holding off from that for now. 

“Do you even know how much I watch you? Every day. Every fucking day, I look at you, coming down the hall, running on that field, and I want you. It never fades.” He pressed the heel of his palm to her pussy now, applied pressure that he knew would make her squirm. “I want to tell everyone, how you feel like this, that my Brienne is the godsdamn sexiest person I will ever know, that being with you, being inside of you… nothing can fucking compare.”

Brienne wiggled against his palm and he drew back from her, pulling at her knees so she came even further past the edge of the desk. He saw her dumbfounded expression, nearly the same as she’d had the first time he’d tried this, where she had squawked in shock and nearly pitched him off the bed. They’d gotten better with time. 

He kept whispering all the things that went through his mind at the sight of her, the loose train of lustful thoughts he could barely keep in check sometimes. Her thighs, the long, lean muscles, went over his shoulders, the weight of them almost too much, and still just enough to keep him grounded as he brought his mouth to her cunt, licked up the length of her. His fingers came into play, spreading her lips, stroking alongside his tongue. Brienne’s hips began pulsing in an uneven rhythm, not coming, not yet, but the promise of it all the same. 

Looking up, as Jaime fluttered his tongue against her clit, teasing her briefly before changing course, he saw her head tilting back, the line of her neck almost glowing from the pale light filtering in the window behind her. He’d never seen Brienne look as beautiful as then, almost a goddess that he worshiped with his mouth. 

She started making small, breathy sounds, in time with the movement of her hips, drawing out into moans as her pussy tightened against his tongue when he pressed into her, his nose nudging her clit and making her jump. Jaime sighed against her when she brought her hand to his head, her fingers tracing over his scalp, tightening almost brutally when he touched her in just the right way. 

By this time, any other time, he would have been shedding his underwear, pressing into her, another attempt to make her come on his cock, something they had managed rarely; they used other methods to give her orgasms, both before and after. Jaime only shoved his underwear aside, took himself in his hand now, pulling in time with the movements of his tongue, resuming his efforts to give Brienne this, to show her everything he meant when he said that she was all he wanted. 

Jaime knew she believed him now, but an occasional reminder never hurt anything. 

Her thighs were tightening around him, her hitching breaths faster, the whining at the back of her throat louder and Jaime redoubled his efforts, rewarded when Brienne let out an almost jarring moan, her legs quaking around him, squeezing him in for several long seconds, making him gasp for air when they shook apart again. 

Then she slumped a bit, something like a puppet cut down from strings and Jaime pushed up to support her with his body, his free hand back to his cock and the weight of her, the feel of her lips at his throat, helped him reach that precipice, coming on her thigh with a groan of his own. 

Jaime stood there, still between her now wet thighs, from her and him both, waiting patiently until she stirred from her own haze. He wondered if she would doze some, she often did when satiated by their efforts. Before she could, he pulled her off the desk, helped her over to his bed on wobbly legs, encouraging her to lay down between the sheets after he removed her shirt entirely.

“Come here,” she mumbled, pulling at him as he tried to remove the rest of his own clothes. 

“Coming,” Jaime assured her, joining under the sheets and drawing her into his arms. 

“No, you didn’t,” Brienne lolled her head back and smiled at him, “or did you?”

“Yeah, but we’ll get another chance later.” Jaime stroked his thumb over her cheek, laughing lightly at her innuendo, it’s rareness making up for its mildness. “I wanted to do something for you first. Totally worth it.”

Brienne hummed, her eyes closed. 

“You don’t know what you look like when you come, do you?”

She only shrugged.

“It’s amazing. Beautiful. It makes me feel like I’m a hundred feet tall that I’m able to do that for you,” Jaime told her.

“Jaime Lannister,” Brienne asked, humor thick in her voice, “did you go down on me for you or for me?”

“Brienne Tarth, anything that is all about me, is all about you. Every time.” He hugged her closer. “You should know that by now.”

“Yeah,” she replied with a happy sigh, “I guess I do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not shown, but still counts: Oft-second place Loras Tyrell outside the changing rooms after the heroic fair, whining through the door that Brienne is taking too long and he needs to change, too. Luckily, he's distracted by a sympathetic Renly, who pulls him away to soothe his injured pride before Jaime can emerge, arranging a half crumpled crown on his head and wearing a ridiculously transparent, self-satisfied smile. 
> 
> Just because their friends don't notice doesn't mean Brienne and Jaime are hiding it particularly _well_.


	4. Chapter 4

“That’s really fantastic to hear, Sam… No, I really didn’t, but that’s kind of you to say… Of course, I’m sure Jaime would love to double, when Gilly’s ready…”

Jaime raised an eyebrow, wondering what exactly his girlfriend was promising of him. Brienne towered over him in the best of ways, sitting on his thighs as he lay on his bed; they were both fully clothed, though not for lack of attempting otherwise on his part. 

He tried rubbing his palms on Brienne’s legs, only to be gently batted away as she continued speaking on the phone. “Sansa was the one who met her, Sam, you really don’t need to thank me. No, really…”

Holding back laughter from seeing the beleaguered look on her face, Jaime tugged on the ends of her shirt, reminding her of his continued presence, as well as their limited time. Brienne just gave him a stern look that lost its effect when it warred with amusement as he tried running his fingers up inside her shirt and she leaned back, hands a little firmer as she removed his.

She was still trying to give reassurance, promises, something to Sam when Jaime reared up and started pressing warm kisses to her neck, inducing almost silent laughter that she choked off to say, “Sam, I’m really happy for you. I’m glad you found your soulmate, I’m happy with mine, too, _even when he’s annoying_.”

With that, Brienne pushed forward, slamming Jaime back onto the soft mattress, using impressive speed to somehow simultaneously put the phone between her shoulder and ear and then using both hands to press Jaime down by his shoulders. If she thought that would be a deterrent, she clearly didn’t know him at all. Or, judging by the expression on her face, maybe she did. 

How she was able to keep her voice even when her eyes sparked with such intent, Jaime would never know. “Can I call you a little later, Sam? We can make, um, plans. Yeah. Okay, bye.”

Jaime shook free to take the phone from her ear, making sure it had disconnected and then flung it off the bed. Brienne followed its arc through the air and looked back at him with a glare. “You are a menace. If you broke the screen again…”

“Put it on my tab,” Jaime said happily, pulling her face down to his, Brienne whispering either _menace_ or _madness_ or both in the few moments they broke for air. 

After, with Brienne’s cheek on his chest and their legs tangled, Jaime remembered the half-heard conversation. “Did I hear it right, Sam found out about his soulmate?”

“Yeah,” Brienne replied softly. “She told Sansa a few weeks ago that she was thinking about it, she must have decided, after all. They haven’t actually met yet, Sam said they’re trading emails for now.”

“That’s… sweet,” Jaime said wonderingly. He couldn’t imagine knowing about Brienne and not immediately having her by his side; even before he knew that she had his sword on her shoulder blade, he’d wanted to be in her presence at every possible instance. But, he supposed from what Brienne had told him several weeks before, Sam had a particularly unique situation on his hands. 

He ran his fingers over the sword as he thought of it, finding it unerringly, suspecting he only partly imagined the almost magnetic pull of it from her skin. 

“Everyone is different,” Brienne said on a yawn before nestling more into him, “I think that’s the strangest thing about all of this. So many people I know have found their soulmates and we’ve all had a different experience. I knew that was possible, but it’s another thing to live it.”

Jaime knew she was thinking of Robb now, the way her voice trailed off and then she sighed sadly. As much as he’d wanted to take the other guy to task when Brienne had finally told him how… Robb he’d been about their conversation, she’d asked him to stay out of it. He was trying, though Robb’s significant distance from everyone since they’d come back from the winter break was clearly distressing her. 

“I can talk to him, if you want,” Jaime offered again, though for the life of him, he wasn’t sure what he’d actually say. But if it was something that would help Brienne bear the situation a little better, he’d do it. 

“No, he just needs time, I can give him that.” Brienne leaned up and kissed him. “But thanks.”

###### 

Jaime tried. He really did. 

But it was _Brienne_.

###### 

It was only a few days later when he went against Brienne’s request, during a particularly slow lunch, with Jaime sitting and nodding along as Sam chattered on about Gilly. From his description, she was at the same time gentle and brave and kind and sweet and shy and… Perfection, basically. Sam hadn’t even met the girl in person yet, but to him she was perfection personified. Jaime couldn’t deny that he felt that way about his own soulmate, so it was hard to cut the other guy off. He even shared a smile with Sansa as Sam started on about how she wrote the best emails and had sent him a picture of her wrist and the soulmark was actually there, just like his. 

Jaime’s attention was caught when Brienne entered through the doors on the other side of the cafeteria, the look on her face somewhere between shock and joy. He stood as she came closer, taking the papers she pressed into his hands when she was close enough. 

“My dad brought it, he saw it when he went home for lunch and brought it straight here,” Brienne said with astonishment, her eyes wide and excited. “I got in, Jaime. I got in!”

Confused, Jaime looked down at the thick sheaf of papers, the masthead pronouncing it to be from Stormlands College, the print below courteously inviting Brienne to join their incoming freshman class. Smiling widely, Jaime said, “Of course you did, how could you ever doubt it?”

Brienne practically jumped into his arms, hugging him tightly, crumpling the papers in between them. Jaime laughed and hugged her back, kissing her soundly, uncaring of the crowd around them, the raised voices from their friends as they enquired what had the two of them so excited. 

“There’s more,” Brienne pulled back and tried to straighten out the acceptance letter, “there’s a letter from their soccer coach, he said he saw some of my films, he wants me to try out, I… I can’t believe it, the Stormlands has had the best team for ages...”

“And they’re going to be even better with you joining them,” Jaime said, drawing her in to give her another firm kiss before turning to the room as a whole. “She got into Stormlands, assholes! You wish you were this lucky!”

Brienne was laughing too hard to get after him, which Jaime took as a cue to find a few die-hard Stormlands College fans that he knew of on the football team and towards them shouted out, “Stormlands!”

“THUNDER!” The boys shouted back, dutifully joining the well-known chant. 

“You’re insane,” Brienne said, the sting completely absent in light of the elation on her face, the glee in her voice. 

“What kind of mascot is thunder, though?” Jaime had to ask. “Does someone run around dressed like a lightning bolt? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It makes _perfect_ sense,” Sansa interrupted, shoving Jaime away so she could give Brienne a hug as well, “I didn’t even know you applied! This is so exciting!”

Brienne was soon inundated by friends and well-wishers, while Jaime led the chant a few more times, just in case someone hadn’t gotten the message. After a few minutes, she pulled him down to sit alongside her and even put a hand over his mouth to get him to stop.

“I hadn’t planned on it,” she was explaining to their friends, “I thought I’d go to King's Landing U, since dad works there and so many of you guys are going, but Jaime and I got to talking and…”

She turned and gave him a look that warmed his chest. 

“He said that I should go for it, that I owed it to myself to try,” Brienne finished. Jaime pulled her hand down and entwined their fingers. 

“Never had a doubt, you’re too smart for them to turn down,” he told her sincerely. “Never mind that you’ll completely kick ass on their team.”

“Doesn’t hurt that he’ll be going, too, I imagine.” Robb’s voice from behind them, where he’d come from sitting with his fellow baseball players, his common spot as of late.

Brienne faltered, looking between the letter, Jaime and Robb. “What?”

“You never said you wanted to go to Stormlands,” Robb said, almost accusing. He must have seen the startled looks on their faces and backtracked, sounding less acidic when he reluctantly added, “It’s a big deal, though, congratulations, I guess.”

Still looking off-balance, Brienne just nodded her thanks and looked away. Jaime, however, sat up and said, “Join us, man, it’s been a while.”

Unable to ignore the dare in Jaime’s voice, as he’d hoped, Robb sat down across from them, attempting casualness as he stole the pudding off of Sam’s tray. For his part, Sam just bounced his eyes from person to person; Jon, Sansa and Theon stayed silent, as well.

“What changed things?” Robb finally asked, breaking into the pudding cup and pretending to give it the bulk of his attention. “I thought we were supposed to take on KLU together, the four of us. Keep the magic going.”

“We haven’t talked about that in a while,” Brienne said softly. Jaime gripped her fingers under the table and she straightened her shoulders. “I’ve always liked Stormlands, that’s not new. I just didn’t think I had a chance of getting in. Jaime practically mailed in the application for me.”

“Anything to keep you close, huh?”

“Okay, that doesn’t make any sense,” Jaime said, butting in, anything to get that faint sneer off of Robb’s face. “Do you honestly think I, Jaime Lannister, the guy lucky to get a B in my best class, got into Stormlands?”

Robb looked a little doubtful, but still defiantly said, “There’s football recruiting.”

Jaime just shoved his right wrist up to view and made a buzzing noise. “Guess again, Robb.”

“So where are you doing, then? Just going to hang out until Brienne graduates?” Robb shot back.

“Hell no, I’m going to Westeros U in Lannisport, I got my acceptance last month,” Jaime said with a purposefully carefree shrug, one that wouldn’t give away the long conversations that he and Brienne had had about being separated for four literal years. “Didn’t hurt that my dad’s still on the board. We’re all Lions, which by the way, is an actual mascot that makes actual sense.”

He said the last part to Brienne, who gave him a feeble smile, something that made his throat go tight in anger. She’d been smiling so differently, widely, happily only moments before. And Robb had come along to ruin it. But she was also pleading with him in that moment, silently asking him to stop, he could see it clearly. It rankled, but Jaime took a breath and nodded before turning back to Robb.

Robb, who looked like he’d been brained with a sledgehammer at their news.

###### 

He didn’t tell Brienne, hadn’t wanted to lie to her, so Jaime instead enlisted Margaery to distract her once school let out. When he got the confirmation text from his accomplice, Jaime made his way to the hall where he knew Robb had his last class of the day. 

Finding Robb in the crowd was simple enough, as was sneaking up behind him to grab his arm, holding tightly when the other guy jumped in surprise and then glared up at him. 

“Yeah, this is happening now,” Jaime told him. 

If Robb struggled against him, Jaime hardly felt it in his wave of self-righteousness and anger. He basically hauled him down the hallway, until he found Tyrion and Bronn standing outside a door, giving them a nod as they approached. 

“No one in or out,” Jaime told them.

Bronn rolled his eyes. So did Tyrion. But they listened and the door shut tightly behind them after they entered the empty classroom. Jaime practically shoved Robb away from him. 

“What the fuck is wrong with you? Brienne, _your best friend_ , gets into the college of her dreams and you think it’s okay to come along and shit all over it?” Jaime asked sharply. “What is your fucking damage?”

Robb just clamped his jaw shut, his expression obstinate. 

“She asked me to stay out of this, but you don’t hurt her, you don’t put your unhappiness _on her, do you understand me_?” Jaime realized he was almost shouting and swallowed roughly. “What the fuck, man? What did she do to deserve that, from you?”

He didn’t even care about himself, not really. Jaime was a little sorry, he’d admit, when looking back over the summer, the time they’d all spent together in a group. He’d learned more about everyone, the way they found different things funny, had different preferences, different tastes, but always remained tied together by their friendship. And bit by bit, they’d brought Jaime in, because of Brienne, for Brienne. Robb had become a friend, of sorts. It was hard to remember that time now. 

“You told me you’d beat the shit out of me if I hurt her again,” Jaime told him, glad that the memory of it brought Robb’s gaze back to his own. “So what am I supposed to do when it’s you?”

That finally did it. Robb’s face fell and he leaned back, sitting against the edge of a desk. 

“I didn’t mean to,” Robb finally mumbled.

“I don’t care what you didn’t mean to do, I care that you did it and that you know you were fucking out of line,” Jaime said firmly. 

“Are you really going to different schools?” Robb asked. 

Jaime stared for a moment before shaking away his confusion at the question. “Yeah. It’s not like we’re both psyched for it, but yeah.”

“ _How_?” Robb ran his hands through his hair, curls going messy. “It’s four years, at least.”

“I know it’s four years,” Jaime said tightly. He didn’t like to think of it, though the time was coming closer and closer. Not having Brienne near for months at a time? It was going to be fucking torture. “But we’ll make it work. They’re the right places for both of us. I’m not the kind of asshole that will take away an opportunity like this from her.”

He gave Robb another pointed look and he flushed at the insinuation. 

“Gods, I was such an ass,” Robb groaned.

“Oh, you think?” Jaime said snidely.

“It just comes out, I swear, I wasn’t going to be a shit, but everything’s changing and I thought it would be like before, all of us together and it would be okay and then Brienne was saying that she’s going to Stormlands instead…” Robb shook his head. “I just want things to stop changing so damn much.”

He looked so godsdamned depressed, Jaime felt his anger start to fade. Throwing his hands up in the air, Jaime walked closer and leaned on the desk opposite Robb. 

“What’s so wrong with change?”

Robb frowned. “You don’t get it, Jaime. You got things easy, you got Brienne and you guys make it look so fucking easy.”

“Easy?” Jaime laughed loudly, harshly, “Where were you last year? My whole life changed, everything I knew about myself, everything I wanted, all of it changed when Brienne came into my life. I wouldn’t take that back for one godsdamn minute. But none of it was _easy_. Didn’t you just hear the part where I’m going to be away from my soulmate for four years? Easy, my ass.”

That brought an actual thoughtful look to Robb’s face. 

Maybe it was all the times Brienne had the same look on her face over Robb, fretting over her best friend’s distance, his silence, but Jaime felt as if Brienne had the right of it. “Is that what happened with Talisa? That’s what Brienne thinks and the only thing that makes me go this fucking crazy is my soulmate, so what, did something happen with you guys?”

“I just,” Robb sighed, looking embarrassed by what he was about to say. “I thought it would be easier.”

“And you looked at me and Brienne and thought you guys would be like that, too?” Jaime scoffed. Robb’s embarrassment seem to double and maybe it was unkind, but it was truthful when Jaime said, “Man, you gotta fucking earn that. Not one of us has had it go the easy way and you’re a dumbass for thinking that you don’t have to work for it, too.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Robb said quietly.

A little chagrined that an appropriate time to throw a punch never appeared, Jaime pushed off the desk. “You’re going to apologize to her. And stop acting like such a shit. Because if you don’t, warrior fucking help you, I won’t be this nice next time.”

Robb’s glare was only halfhearted, perhaps even a little amused. “You’re a lot of things, Lannister, but nice isn’t one of them.” 

“Yeah, well, people can change.” Jaime pulled open the door and nodded to his brother and Bronn. Bronn looked disappointed at the lack of bloodshed. “Give it a shot before you fuck things up for good.”

###### 

“No.”

“Yes.”

“ _No_.”

“ _Yes_ ,” Margaery almost hissed and thrust the offending item at Brienne’s chest. The other girl might have at least eight inches on her, but Margaery Tyrell was cowed by no one. “You liked what I picked last year.”

“That one had sleeves,” Brienne held out the hanger before her and frowned at the garment. “My shoulders are going to show. And the back is really low.”

“That’s the point, it won’t hurt to show off your gorgeous soulmark every once in a while and this is as good a time as any. Plus I’ve seen you in a bathing suit, I know you’ve got amazing shoulders and really nice back muscles. They deserve their freedom.” Margaery forcibly turned Brienne in place and pushed her to the changing rooms. “It’s our last spring formal. And I can already see Jaime’s brains melting out his head when he sees you in this.”

Brienne grumbled; Margaery knew she only moved out of politeness and not for any of Margaery’s show of strength. Satisfied when her friend closed the door to the changing room, Margaery sat in a chair outside. She smiled, delighted, when Brienne emerged a couple minutes later, tugging at the thin collar of the silvery-blue dress; she also snapped a discreet photo and sent it off when Brienne started fiddling with the skirt.

“It’s so revealing,” Brienne moaned. 

“That’s the point,” Margaery argued as she circled around and took in the sight, eyes gleaming when she saw the subtle slit in the skirt, allowing a hint of Brienne’s leg all the way to mid thigh. Between that and the halter style top, she was finding it difficult to not say anything more salacious. “Does it help that my dress makes this one look like a septa’s robe in comparison?”

“Sure, because septa’s always go around showing off - ” Brienne gasped, finally finding the slit in the skirt. “Oh, no. No, no, no.”

The gentle ding of her phone’s messenger had Margaery smiling widely and she showed off the picture she’d sent and its enthusiastic response. “Jaime likes it.”

“That’s just mean, Margaery. He’s never going to let up!” Brienne turned to pick up her phone as it started setting off its own multitude of incoming messages. “Ugh, he’s going to be insufferable about this.”

“I guess you’ll just have to buy it,” Margaery said smugly. 

Brienne laughed reluctantly as she stared at her phone. “He said I have to, it’s the law. Gods, why is my boyfriend such an idiot?”

“He not an idiot to appreciate that you look incredible in this dress. Just the opposite.”

“It’s just so…”

“Completely right for you?” Margaery made Brienne turn again to look in the three way mirror. “Look, Brienne. Really look. No one could carry this off like you. Your shoulders are broad, yes, but they’re strong and sculpted. And your legs are just,” she made a chef’s kiss noise, complete with the hand motion.

“Jaime likes my shoulders,” Brienne said, probably only to herself, but Margaery heard it loud and clear.

“That he does.” She raised on her tiptoes and whispered, “Why else would he take you to _Goodwin’s_ all the time?”

Brienne’s face went pale, her freckles standing out in sharp relief. 

“Don’t worry, I haven’t told anyone,” Margaery said in a rush, her excitement in admitting the truth she’d discovered having been tempered by Brienne’s obvious shock. “I promise, cross my heart and hope to die.”

“Oh gods,” Brienne said, shutting her eyes in horror and bringing her clasped hands to her chest. “How long have you known?”

“A couple… months?” Margaery gently pulled at Brienne’s hands. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Brienne, I didn’t say it to tease you. Well, I did, but not in a horrible way. I think it’s great. And, let’s be honest, I’d really like to know more.”

“Oh gods,” Brienne repeated, staggering into the chair Margaery had vacated. 

She should have known that Brienne would respond like this, nearly curling into herself like a particularly horrified tortoise. Feeling very sorry for mortifying her friend, Margaery made a show of checking that the rest of the dressing rooms were empty before kneeling down at Brienne’s side. “As far as I can tell, the rest of them haven’t figured it out, though I’ll admit I’ve had to make a few strategic maneuvers to cover for you at the fair when I thought you were.... celebrating.”

Brienne only groaned in misery. 

Worse and worse. Margaery was amazed at how she was fumbling this. 

Finally Brienne sighed and looked over at her. “How?”

“Oh, about the third time you said you were going to Goodwin's, I started getting suspicious.” She rubbed soothingly at Brienne’s arm. “I only knew for absolute sure how far you’d probably gone on New Year’s, when Jaime said he was taking you home but I saw you two taking the back stairs up instead. That’s all it really took, to look back and see how you two always mysteriously seemed to wander off together.

“Plus, there was this,” Margaery said, pointing out the lacy bralette that Brienne was still wearing under the dress. “I know you don’t care about this sort of stuff, so if you were wearing pretty things, it was clearly for someone else to enjoy.”

She said the last of it with a teasing note, one that pulled an answering smile from Brienne, slight as it was. 

“I had to stop using the Goodwin excuse,” Brienne confessed, “I was finding it difficult to look him in the eye when we actually saw him.”

Margaery laughed brightly. 

“But, yeah, it’s been going on a while,” Brienne continued, the color coming back to her face in full as she blushed, “and it’s… really good.”

“Is it?” Margaery’s grin was all teeth. “You must give me something. Please, Brienne, I’ve never had soulmate sex, I’m dying to know.”

A laugh burst from Brienne’s mouth, her face reddening further, though she said, “I don’t know any other kind!”

“Anything!” Margaery gave her an almost simpering look, pleased when Brienne chuckled again. “I’ve heard it’s like being on another plane of existence, almost tantric.”

“I don’t know about that,” Brienne’s side eye was a thing of beauty, “I don’t know what to say. It’s like going a little crazy? A lot crazy. One moment we’ll be normal and the next, I feel like if I don’t get him… you know, that I might lose my mind.”

Margaery sighed lustfully. “Amazing.”

“It’s madness,” Brienne countered as she stood. She stopped and looked at herself in the mirror again. “It makes me feel like I can wear this dress and not care about what anyone else thinks, because as long as Jaime likes it, nothing else matters. And that I could go in a septa’s robe and he’d love that, too. Because he wants me either way. Any way.”

“That sounds lovely,” Margaery told her. She was surprised by the pang she felt in her chest as she heard Brienne’s words, right under her left breast where her own soulmark was hidden. There was hardly ever a time where she thought of the mark, out of sight from the world and frequently forgotten as she made her merry way through life. She’d long ago taken her grandmother’s encouragement to heart, to just let life happen and not purposefully search out for the other half that might be a disappointment in the end. All the same, when Brienne spoke this way, Margaery couldn’t help but wonder. 

But she’d learned to be pragmatic about these things and had long ago decided that time spent on wondering was time wasted. So Margaery stood and joined Brienne at the mirror and said, “Then I take it that means you’re buying it?”

Brienne looked in the mirror, then back at her, and nodded. 

“Excellent, now let’s talk about heels.”

“Oh, no.”

“Oh, yes.”

###### 

Brienne wasn’t sure what had changed, but she knew enough that Jaime was the driving force. His fingerprints were obviously all over it, never mind the peculiar texts he had sent her the night before that she should be getting a good surprise in the morning. The day after she received her Stormlands acceptance letter, she walked outside to find Robb waiting to take her to school, a warm blueberry muffin held out as he apologized for being an ‘ _unbelievable ass_ ’ that didn’t deserve her friendship. 

Any annoyance that she had for her best friend or boyfriend dissipated within seconds at the sincerely remorseful look on Robb’s face. Nevertheless, Brienne still made him wait as she ate the whole muffin before she said, “All right then” and got in the car. The relieved expression on Robb’s face was entirely worth it.

“That was very Lannister of you, by the way,” Robb said as he drove them along. “I really thought you might still punch me.”

“Did Jaime punch you?” Brienne asked suspiciously.

“Only with words. Looks like the two of you are rubbing off on each other.”

She’d never been so glad to arrive a school, if only to get out of the car before she laughed her ass off.

###### 

The weeks passed quickly, happily, as all her friends bound together again, Robb’s foray into jerkdom easily forgiven by everyone else in light of Brienne’s tacit approval. He still didn’t speak of Talisa or what had gone wrong, but he stopped giving Sansa such a hard time, and even invited Jaime over to the Stark’s for video games with the other guys. He was trying and that was all that mattered to the rest of them.

Spring Formal was soon upon them, and with it Jaime and Brienne’s first anniversary. Despite the milestone, Brienne made a request of him.

“The whole night?” Jaime asked doubtfully.

“It’s the last time we’ll all get to do this, I don’t want to miss out on anything. Besides, our anniversary isn’t until the next day, we’ll have our own time together. But for the formal, I want to be with our friends,” Brienne pleaded as they stood by their lockers between classes. She cocked her head and widened her eyes. “Please?”

“You need to stop spending so much time with Margaery, that is blatant manipulation,” Jaime complained. He held her gaze for another second before rolling his own eyes. “Fine, I guess, formal with our friends and then all of us at the Stark’s after. But the next day, just us.”

“Absolutely,” Brienne said with a little smile. 

Jaime leaned in, not risking being overheard as he added, “And I get you all day. All. Day.”

Brienne could hardly suppress her shiver. “You say that like I’ll argue.”

“Just making sure,” Jaime said loftily, pulling back and then giving her a quick kiss on the cheek before they broke apart to their different classes. 

The day of the dance was faintly similar to the year before, Brienne getting ready with Sansa, allowing the younger girl to curl and twist her hair into some semblance of style. The change was obvious in what they spoke about, Sansa about Theon and Sam and Gilly, Brienne and Jaime. In times like these, Brienne was tempted to tell Sansa about Jaime and how far their relationship had progressed, especially as Margaery was in the know. She hesitated, though, wondering if Sansa would feel the need to hasten her own relationship, even unconsciously. 

Instead, Brienne went behind the screen in Sansa’s room to pull on the dress that Margaery and Jaime had convinced her to buy. At this distance, Brienne was almost alarmed as she pulled it out of the garment bag, having somehow forgotten the length of back she would show, the parting in the skirt. 

_This is insane_ , Brienne thought as she put it on and struggled with the zipper. “Sansa, could you give me a hand?”

Sansa’s gasp once she came around the screen made Brienne freeze.

“That is a beautiful dress,” Sansa said in awe, the soft tone of her voice allowing Brienne’s shoulders to relax. “You look so… wow, Brienne. Wow.”

“Yeah?”

Sansa nodded happily and then turned her to fix the zipper. “And it shows your soulmark. Jaime’s not going to know what to do with himself.”

 _Oh, he’ll know_ , Brienne thought to herself, _he’ll just be mad he won’t be able to do anything about it_. Out loud, she just laughed and said, “I guess we’ll find out.”

“I know you’re taking it slow, like me and Theon,” Sansa said earnestly, “but with this? And your anniversary tomorrow? Do you think maybe he’ll want to… you know?”

“Ah,” Brienne opened her mouth and closed it again before carefully saying, “we’ve talked about it.”

“I’ve embarrassed you, sorry,” Sansa said quickly. “And you don’t have to say anything, if you do, but I think it’s wonderful. I hope Theon and I can get there, one day.”

“You will,” Brienne said, grabbing on to Sansa’s hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze as the other girl’s eyes suddenly glistened with unshed tears. “You don’t have to do anything you’re not ready for. Remember that, okay? And you can talk to me about any of it, when you’re ready.”

“Thanks, Brienne.” Sansa sniffed delicately and then backed way to grab her own dress. “Let’s finish getting ready, I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces.”

And in Jaime’s words, the looks on their faces? Totally worth it.

###### 

The formal passed in a blur of dancing, laughing and countless flashing photographs. Someone had set up a prop photo booth and their whole crowd squeezed in, putting on funny hats and scarves, making ridiculous faces and silly poses for the camera. Jaime pulled her close for at least one photo, kissing her thoroughly behind everyone else. Brienne had never felt so happy, or so free. 

Robb, Jon and Sam had all gone stag, Sam explaining that though he and Gilly liked spending time together now, she had seemed shy at the idea of meeting all his friends at once. Nobody pressed him for more, but Brienne, Sansa and Margaery all took turns dancing with each of the guys, Jaime and Theon hooting after them from the sidelines when they did. 

When the dance started winding down, they all piled into the limo that Jaime had rented, to Brienne’s rote protest, picking up burgers and snacks before heading back to the Stark’s, parting from Margaery, Renly and Loras along the way. They trampled into Theon’s basement to blare music again, bringing out video games and were soon delightfully castigating each other as they tried to win. 

It was, of course, Theon who brought out the bottles of beer, whiskey and vodka that he’d hidden under his bed and held them out in the air triumphantly. Robb and Jon crowed in excitement, never mind, or maybe because of, the drink Tyrion had already provided them at the dance. One of them tried to press a glass into Brienne’s hand as she sat on the couch next to Jaime, but she was relieved when Jaime took it out of her hand and took a sip instead, waving off a second cup. 

“They’re going to get so plastered,” Jaime said, taking another small sip before setting the cup aside. 

“Sounds like someone I know,” Brienne replied with a smile.

“I was tipsy. That’s it. Tipsy enough to be a disaster, but not so much that I didn’t end that night in the best possible way,” Jaime said back. They both watched as Jon started to dance to the music, his usually staid facade disappearing as he shuffled in place, shaking his shoulders and wiggling his butt. Sam laughed behind him, but joined in, too. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m actually glad we did this.”

“Good, I am too,” Brienne said warmly, leaning over to press a kiss to his cheek. 

“But this dress,” Jaime looked down at her and slowly brought his eyes back to her face, “Godsdamn torture, Tarth.”

Brienne smiled sheepishly.

“And not just me, either, you know,” Jaime leaned in closely, speaking conspiratorially, “you have no idea how many guys I caught sneaking a glance at you.”

Brienne pushed at his shoulder and rolled her eyes. “Don’t lie, you’re the only one who was staring.”

“I swear!” Jaime said, wide-eyed with smug sincerity. “I know for a fact that I saw Hyle Hunt nearly swallow his tongue when you walked by. And then he sat down for a solid ten minutes after that. I know that look, I used to see it on my own face every damn day. That was a guy who was fucking sorry for missing his shot.”

“He never had a shot, Jaime.”

“Damn right, he didn’t.”

Their attention was broken by a soccer ball sailing over their heads and Robb’s drunken pronouncement, “I told you I could! I told you!”

“Not inside, you morons!” Sansa screeched as she dodged the ball that had come her way. 

“You can’t do it,” Theon almost shouted back, his words slightly slurred and smile crooked.

“I just did!”

“We’re inside, doesn’t count!”

“Fine, we’ll go outside then!” Robb shouted back, stumbling over to pick up the ball that Sansa had kicked aside. “I can bend it. I can bend it anytime I want to.”

“I believe in you,” Jon cried out, almost in song, Sam nodding fervently next to him. As one, they pounded up the stairs after Robb and Theon, Sansa at the back, speaking only to the ceiling as she said, “Why? Why do I love these idiots?”

“Do you… do you think they’ll notice if we stay here,” Jaime asked slowly after they all disappeared from sight, their footsteps overhead followed by the back door opening and closing. 

“I think they’ll forget what they went up there for any second now,” Brienne replied. 

“Let’s hope they take a little longer than that.” With that Jaime, pulled her closer, almost manhandling her to straddle his lap. He grazed his hands over the thigh revealed by the parting of her skirt, causing goosebumps to erupt all over her body. “Finally.”

“Oh, shut up,” Brienne said with a strangled laugh, cut off when Jaime pressed his lips to hers, quickly opening her mouth to touch her tongue with his, his hands going around her back. She looped her arms around his neck, not even a little sorry to enjoy a quick private moment. 

“I’m serious,” Jaime said between breaths, “All the things I see, people saw tonight. You were so happy and relaxed and standing tall, I wanted to stand on a fucking table and tell them they’d totally missed out, you’re mine now.”

“You think I don’t see how girls look at you?” Brienne asked, almost losing her train of thought as Jaime started kissing her throat, pulling her more tightly against him. “You with your eyes and your muscles and your stupid smile…”

“My smile is fantastic, how dare you,” Jaime shot back, the words absurdly warming her chest. Or perhaps it was the way Jaime pulled at her hips, making apparent his arousal. Brienne gasped, but ground against him when he pressed up. She remembered, vaguely, where they were, but it was lost as Jaime’s hands ran up under her dress, the slit making it easier for him to maneuver and slip his hand between her legs. 

Brienne rocked against him, thoughts gone fuzzy as Jaime mouthed at her breasts through the fabric of her dress, the way his fingers pushed her underwear aside and stroked her, a little roughly, a lot deliciously. 

“Driving me crazy all night,” Jaime mumbled, Brienne nodding as he grabbed her ass with his free hand, fingers pressing in, probably marking her. Brienne pushed forward, kissing him messily, her own hands clenching Jaime’s shirt, rucking it up when he twisted his fingers and she cried out against his mouth. She started scrabbling for his belt, deemed it too difficult and grasped his cock through his pants, the solid length of it making her pant with suddenly ravenous need. Jaime nearly arched off the couch in response, his fingers pressing into her more deeply before retreating and helping her undo his button and zipper. 

“Quick, come on, come on,” he was muttering, Brienne frantically helping him push his pants just low enough on his hips so that she could move forward, push her underwear aside again, feel the blunt head of his cock and then the length of him sliding in. When Jaime keened in relief, she pulled him in by his lapels and silenced him with her mouth on his. 

There was no time for finesse or caresses, it was only the rush of need as Jaime snapped his hips up, Brienne slamming down almost savagely, chasing down pleasure as Jaime grasped her ass and helped her grind down before going up and coming down again. 

One of them kept chanting _yes yes yes_ while the other gasped out _almost, come on_ but it was lost in the haze of their hurried fucking, Brienne grabbing on to the back of the couch for purchase, Jaime’s mouth moving from her throat to her ear, his groans reverberating through her brain and she felt her orgasm hit her suddenly, almost like a punch to her core, bursts of energy pulsing through her, her pussy spasming tight around Jaime and then he was shuddering too, burying his face in her throat, moaning against her skin. 

It took a long minute of panting, trying to regain her breath, still holding onto the couch, when the realization of what they had just done, and where they had done it, came over Brienne. 

“What the hell just happened?” Jaime asked, sounding baffled, as if reading her thoughts. 

“Ooooh, nooo,” Brienne breathed out. Jaime laughed underneath her, reminding her that he was still inside her, but Brienne couldn’t help but let out a delirious laugh as well. “We are so stupid.”

“ _So stupid_ ,” Jaime echoed. He didn’t sound very sorry about it, but helped her rise up, hissing between his teeth as they pulled apart and he tucked himself back into his pants, as Brienne cupped herself, knowing the mess they had made together. “Shit. Sorry, shit, no condom.”

“It’s okay,” Brienne said distractedly, “birth control, remember?”

Jaime dropped his head back onto the couch cushion in relief. “Yeah, yeah, thank gods.”

Brienne hurried into the bathroom, cleaning herself up and shying away from the mirror when she saw how debauched she looked, with wild hair, still glazed eyes and a bright red face. She tried in vain to fix her hair, gave it up as useless and went back out to meet Jaime, who was looking rather scandalous himself, his shirt twisted in the front, mouth swollen and pants askew. 

Horrified, Brienne said, “It smells like sex in here. What are we going to do?”

“To be fair,” Jaime said with a commiserating smile, “the basement always smells a little funky, Theon’s got a lot of pent up energy.” Brienne went to smack his shoulder, but Jaime caught her by the wrist, pulled her in for a kiss and then added, “I have an idea.”

He was in the middle of shaking a beer bottle and starting to spray foam all over the couch when Jon came down the stairs and found them, wide-eyed and frozen. Jon just took in the sight, looking first at Brienne and then Jaime and then the couch, before putting both hands in the air and saying, his voice sluggish from alcohol, “I didn’t see anything. I don’t know anything. I was never here.”

“Good,” Jaime said in satisfaction, and continued spraying the beer.

“Good,” Jon said with resolve, backing away until he tripped when his heels hit the bottom step.

“Good,” Brienne said faintly, and put in her face in her hands to scream a little as Jon finally ran back up the stairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jon woke up the next morning with a dry mouth, a headache and a fuzzy certainty that he should be glad that at some point, the night before became a blur. Yes. A blur. That was his story and he was sticking to it. 
> 
> All the same, he never sat on that couch again.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My teeny tiny subplot made this chapter a monster. Sorry? But hey, that means the epilogue gets its own chapter.

It was the first truly hot day of Spring when they all gathered together to cheer for Robb and the rest of the baseball team for their last home game. It was the whole lot of them, rising to make a nuisance of themselves whenever Robb was up at bat, the boys forming a sloppy wave when he rounded back to home base. The rest of the time Jaime leaned back between Brienne’s legs, hands occasionally running over her calves, smiling up at her when she nudged her foot against his legs in response. 

Brienne and Sansa were talking about nothing in particular when Sansa suddenly broke off and dug her elbow into Brienne’s side. The surprised expression on the other girl’s face had Brienne following her line of sight and she felt her eyebrows fly up when she saw Talisa on the other set of bleachers. 

It’d been months since they had seen her, but she was just as slim and pretty as ever, her focus intent on the field where Robb was running out to join the rest of his team. 

“Should we…?” Sansa trailed off, her question clear to Brienne.

She was tempted. _So_ tempted. But she knew it would do little good and probably a lot bad if she forced the issue. Instead, Brienne said, “She’ll come over if she wants, I think. It’ll probably distract Robb if he sees us going over, I don’t want him to think the worst.”

“As if you’d yell at her,” Sansa said with a snort.

Brienne wasn’t so sure of that as Sansa was. As much as Robb had refrained from saying anything, it had become clear, once Brienne really paid attention, that he was… heartbroken. All of the protesting aside, renouncement of soulmates altogether, she’d known her best friend long enough to know that something had hurt him deeply, someone had, and Brienne wasn’t sure if she could trust her own protective nature from welling up. 

“Yeah,” she finally said uncertainly. Her change in tone caught Jaime’s attention and he glanced back up at her, pushing his sunglasses up in question. Brienne only shook her head in response. Jaime frowned, but nodded, looking back at the game instead. 

It came to seemingly nothing, the game ending with Robb’s team victorious, Brienne standing with the rest of them to yell their congratulations. She observed the moment when Robb saw Talisa, the way he stilled in place momentarily before looking away and rejoining the celebration. When Brienne chanced glancing back over, Talisa appeared to dither in place before finally leaving the stands and disappearing from view. 

Brienne waited, hoping she’d reappear near them, but she never did.

###### 

She didn’t know what told her it would work this time, but Brienne pulled back when everyone else went onto the field after the team cleared out. Robb was lagging behind, gathering up his things from the dugout, pointedly ignoring the way Jaime, Theon and the rest of them were running around the bases and calling out blatantly incorrect plays.

“Need a hand?” Brienne asked, a little lamely considering Robb had already packed up his bag. 

“I’m good,” he said quietly. 

Brienne waited until he looked back at her before asking, “Are you?”

Robb didn’t answer at first; he sat down heavily on the bench, dropping his head down almost to his knees. Brienne sat gingerly next to him, waiting silently until he was ready. 

“Did you ask her to come?” He finally asked.

“No, of course not,” Brienne said, surprised. “Nobody did, I’m sure of it.”

He nodded shortly and a longer time passed before he said, “She’s moving to Volantis, right after graduation. There’s this medical mission thing she’s been volunteering with for a long time and they offered her a position while she goes to school there. A permanent position.”

Brienne’s heart sank, Robb’s mournful words and the memory of his shocked expression when Jaime had told him about Stormlands and Westeros coming clear. 

“I asked her not to,” Robb said with a humorless laugh. “Because I’m an ass.”

“No, you’re not,” Brienne protested immediately.

“I am. I absolutely am. I asked her to drop everything she’s ever planned, just for me and she said no,” Robb replied. “She asked me if I’d go there and I said no, too. What the hell would I do in Volantis? And we just kept fighting and fighting over it. Talisa, she said she never put much thought into her mark and that she wasn’t going to let it dictate her life, no matter what she feels about me.”

Something in her chest ached for him. “That doesn’t have to be the end, does it? People can make things like this work, Robb.”

His voice was a little dry, a lot hurt and she grabbed his hand when he said, “Maybe other people. I don’t know about me. But it’s not just that.”

Brienne eyed him warily. “What else?”

“Last summer,” he said with a heavy sigh, “when she got back from her trip, we got carried away. Had sex.”

“Oh.” Brienne took a breath, releasing it slowly as she considered the past, ruefully realizing she couldn’t pinpoint the time where everything had changed for him. Another time, she’d have to wonder at their ability to fool each other so well.

“And before that, maybe I could have handled it? I don’t know, but everything got so much more intense, it just unlocked something and the thought of her leaving was fucking unbearable, and it hurt every time I was with her, and it hurts when she’s not here and…” He trailed off, looking down again, but not before she saw his eyes had gone wet. “I really didn’t care about soulmates, but ever since I met her, it’s not the same, you know?”

“I do,” Brienne agreed softly. 

“This is going to make me sound even fucking worse, if you can believe it, but I thought, before Talisa, if nothing ever came of it, I’d still be all right? I’d still have all of you. I’d still have… you.” His voice got faster, spilling a confession she could have never anticipated. “My mom and dad figured it out, they’re happier than anyone else I know, at least until you and Jaime got together. But I think I had it in the back of my head somewhere that if you didn’t find yours and I didn’t find mine, I couldn’t do much better than building a life with my best friend.”

Jaw dropping, Brienne shook her head automatically. “Robb - ”

“I”m not jealous of Lannister. I’m not. I swear. You guys. You guys are good. Fucking perfect for each other,” Robb said intently, looking back at her in earnest now. “But it just felt like I lost a lot in just a little amount of time and it really fucking sucked. I didn’t know how to deal with it, so I just made a mess of it instead.”

“It was messy,” Brienne replied, but she clenched Robb’s hand tighter in hers, “but I get it. I do.”

“I thought I could let it go for a while, we broke up and I… ugh, I kissed someone? At the party on New Year’s?” He grimaced and hesitated and something on his face made a name come clear to her and Brienne gasped. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it was the fucking worst, I was drunk and I felt like such a shit right away, I’m so sorry.”

Brienne couldn’t help the shudder of distaste and Robb rushed to say, “I was so drunk, please believe me, I never would have done it sober, I can’t stand her for what she did to you. She was just there and saying that she and her soulmate have an understanding and I was like, why not, maybe I can do that too and then we kissed and I wished I could take it back in the next second. For you and Talisa. And I wanted to say something, but it was - it was easier to say nothing, you know, until now.”

She struggled with it for several moments, looking away from Robb’s tortured face and back at their friends on the field, their carefree playing at odds with the leadened feeling in her stomach. As much as Brienne could guess he hadn’t done it as an insult to her, had likely done without much thought at all, it still roiled uneasily within her. Brienne felt herself make a face and she tried her best to school it back into a placid expression, Robb’s hand now tight on hers, though she couldn’t find it in herself to shake him off. 

“I’m so sorry,” he finally repeated, when Brienne finally let out a deep breath and nodded. 

“Just… don’t do it again?” Brienne replied, unable to keep her nose from wrinkling in disdain. 

“Never,” Robb said forcefully. “For so many reasons, never again.”

Brienne let out a reluctant chuckle at the adamant expression on his face. 

“That’s part of the problem, I can’t imagine it with anyone, anything with anyone that’s not Talisa. But I don’t know what to do. Because I’m here and she’s going to be there and it just feels impossible, like the gods just wanted to fuck with me, dangling her out there and then just taking her away.”

Staring at him, Brienne shook her head slowly. “She hasn’t gone anywhere yet, Robb. She was literally just here.”

Robb swung his free arm around impatiently. “And do you see her now?” 

“Because you didn’t say anything! You turned away, I saw it!”

“Because it fucking hurts!”

“SO WHAT?” Brienne stopped short, surprised at the vehemence in her voice. She paused and caught herself from saying more, saw Jaime was looking over at them and waved him away. He responded by starting to shepherd the rest of the group off the field, saying something that had Sam lighting up and leading them out of sight. 

Brienne searched for words for what seemed like forever, alone in the dugout with her best friend who certainly needed a knock to the head, something she knew was long overdue. She thought over all he’d said, the hurt and absolute worst of it and finally started with, “You and I would never have worked.”

“I know that - ”

“Shut up.”

Robb cringed. “Okay.”

“We would have never worked because I loved my soulmark from the moment I got it. It was special. It meant more to me than any other eight year old could possibly feel. Or that’s what I thought, until I realized it was Jaime.

“Jaime and I, we both put a lot of hope in our soulmarks, ever since they showed up. Maybe it’s because we were so young or because it was about the same time we realized that both our families were just a little… broken.” Brienne swallowed hard before continuing. “We saw them and thought, it’ll be okay. Once I find this person, it’ll be okay, _I’ll_ be okay. We had so much invested in each other before we knew who the other person was. I honestly don’t know how we would have worked if only one of us felt that way. But we were both ready for it, to love and be loved.”

She searched Robb’s face for understanding before asking, “What did you feel when you got yours?”

“I thought… cool, wolves.”

Brienne bent forward and laughed helplessly, pinching the bridge of her nose between her fingers. 

“Sorry I’m not all romantic and shit like the two of you - ”

“Shut up,” Brienne said again, gentler this time. “Don’t you get it, though? You and I, we’ve always seen the world differently. And that’s fine, because we’re not meant for each other that way. I’m meant for Jaime and you’re meant for Talisa, or at least that’s what the universe has offered us if we choose it. And if you’ve had one foot out the door since your soulmark showed up, is it really so surprising that she has, too?”

Robb raised his eyebrows and looked down, clearly taking her words to heart, studying them silently. 

“It won’t be easy and I’m sorry for that. I can’t promise you that it’s going to work out. I wish I could. Maybe you’ll go your separate ways and you’ll find somebody else someday, like your mom and dad.” Brienne shrugged. “Maybe you’ll find your way back to each other, there’s nothing saying that you _have_ to be together at this moment, maybe just the knowledge will be enough until you can be in the same place at the same time. But none of that has a chance of happening if you shut each other out. And she was here, Robb.”

She waited until he brought his eyes back to hers, squeezing his fingers. “So it’s your turn now.”

###### 

They were walking to the parking lot together, shoulders bumping occasionally in solidarity. It felt better, having spoken, having heard him out and hopefully having given Robb something to think about in return. Jaime was in the distance, leaning against his car, sunglasses still on and looking ridiculously like he should be on a billboard somewhere. Brienne smiled at the thought. 

“I’ll talk to Sansa,” Robb said suddenly, calling back her attention. “I know I gave her a hard time, but I didn’t want… I didn’t want her to make the same mistake, you know?”

Brienne nodded in understanding. “I can see what you meant by it, but I think she’d appreciate an actual apology.”

“And you, I mean, I know you guys are like, together forever, love my life, oh gods, never leave me, ” Robb rolled his eyes and pretended to gag, “but, just be careful? Because it changes everything. Sex, I mean.”

“I know, Robb.”

“I’m serious, it changes _everything_ , Brienne.”

Brienne sighed and put her hand on his arm, stopping him place. “Robb. I know.”

It took only a moment, the way his expressions changed from solemn to confused and then slack with realization. “You’re kidding. No. Fucking. Way.”

She was very glad Jaime was too far away to hear, he would have taken such delight in responding to that. She could even hear him saying it, _Actually, yes fucking way, that’s the point, Stark. Need some pointers? I’ve still got the diagrams._

Jaime Lannister lived in her head, gods help her. 

Nothing of the sort came out of her mouth, she thankfully still had the filter her soulmate lacked; Brienne kept still as Robb ran through a litany of starts and stops, words broken off, looking at her and then looking in the distance at Jaime, until he was finally able to yelp, “Since when?!”

“A while,” Brienne replied simply.

“A while,” Robb choked off again, mouth open. After several seconds, he scrunched his face in an exaggerated way. “Ugh, you guys are so gross. Are you serious?”

Brienne only laughed and pulled him to move again. She laughed harder when they got closer to Jaime and Robb only let out a groan of disgust and made a sharp right turn to his car instead. 

“What’s up with him?” Jaime asked, watching as Robb drove away.

“I’ll tell you later,” Brienne said, still giggling to herself. “Where’s everyone else?”

“I suggested to Sam if he wanted to have Gilly join us to eat, they went ahead to the restaurant.” Jaime tugged her closer. “He finally talked, huh?”

“He did.” Brienne leaned in, resting her forehead on Jaime’s chest, breathing him in and feeling so, so thankful that they’d made it through their own messy beginning. Not just that, but for the astounding luck that they were able to discover each other despite all the obstacles in the first place. Laughter faded, she allowed herself to feel the sadness of Robb’s situation and all its precariousness. “It’s not been simple for him and I’m not sure if it’s going to be anytime soon.”

Jaime rubbed his hands over her arms. “He’ll be all right, he’s got you. I know from personal experience that’s pretty awesome. Highly recommend it.”

“Yeah,” Brienne replied, voice still soft.

She felt him kiss the crown of her head. “Don’t be sad. Or be sad and I’ll cheer you up if you want.”

Brienne snorted. “This is not the kind of situation where you use your dick to make me feel better.”

“I don’t know, it usually does the trick.”

“Jaime.”

“My mouth, too.”

Brienne leaned back, intrigued against her better judgement. 

Jaime grinned. “That’s my girl. Let’s go.”

###### 

It didn’t seem different, at least at first, or Brienne was too busy to see it. The end of the school year came quickly, with exams and end of year projects and plans for graduation. Somewhere in there, Brienne was invited to a formal dinner at the request of Tywin Lannister, Jaime grumbling his way through the meal as his father managed to congratulate her on her acceptance to Stormlands without actually saying the words. Across the table, Cersei sent a smirk her way that Brienne realized she’d been on the receiving end of for a while, but she only smiled back serenely, much to Cersei’s confusion. Tyrion nearly pissed himself laughing. 

A benefit of the godsawful, uncomfortable dinner was the permission granted to use the Lannister beach house after graduation, each of their friends wrangling permission to descend on it for a full week. When Brienne offered an invitation to Talisa through Robb, he only shrugged and said he wasn’t sure she’d come, but the smile on his face settled the parts of Brienne that still worried over him. 

If no one had figured it out before they arrived at the beach house, they certainly did when Jaime tossed his and Brienne’s bags into the master bedroom without fanfare and said, “You guys sort yourselves out, we’re covered.”

“Gods, I hope so,” Robb mumbled in response before pointedly wandering away to find a room in a different section of the house altogether. 

Margaery and Sansa shared a room, dragging Brienne over in an attempt to pump her for information, which she resolutely refused. They only relented when Gilly joined them on a day trip, her bashfulness keeping everyone in check from the teasing they had been sending in Jaime and Brienne’s direction. They’d never seen Sam so blissful and in response they invited the quiet girl in as much as she would allow. 

Sitting around the bonfire that night, huddled together with Jaime, looking at Robb, Jon, Tyrion and Margaery, Theon and Sansa, Renly and Loras, Sam and Gilly, Brienne knew that everything had changed without her even noticing. She felt a little sad, looking at the group that would soon disband into singles and pairs, to different schools, in different stages of their lives. She hoped that they would all do well, that they would hold on to one another, deepen their friendships despite the distance. Only time would tell.

The part of her that knew she had Jaime for life, that there would never be a question of what they were to each other, was a calm, peaceful feeling inside her. Brienne held tight to it, even as the summer came to a close, too quickly for comfort, bringing with it a thunderous fear of the unknown.

“We’ll be okay,” Jaime told her as they stood in her driveway; her father was waiting patiently in the truck that they’d finished loading that morning. 

Brienne nodded against his shoulder and just held him tighter. 

“I’ll be there in a few weeks, the first break I get, I promise,” Jaime assured her.

“I know,” Brienne mumbled. 

“I love you.”

“I know.”

“You’re supposed to say that you love me back.”

She smiled against his shirt. “You already know that.”

“Couldn’t hurt to say it, though.”

Brienne pulled back and kissed him, warmly and firmly before putting her forehead to his. “I love you, too.”

“We’re going to be okay,” Jaime said again.

“We’re going to be okay,” Brienne repeated.

If nothing else, she was sure of that.

###### 

Arianne Martell was still jiggling her key in the ever sticky lock when the door flew open, her roommate giving her an apologetic smile. 

“Just get in from the gym?” Arianne gave a quick once over at Brienne’s flushed face and rumpled clothes as she passed. “Thought you’d be busy getting ready.”

Brienne’s little hum of agreement to Arianne’s question ended on an inquisitive note. “Ready?”

“Jaime’s coming over for the weekend, isn’t he? Ah, there it is.” She lifted her literature textbook and added it to her already heavy bookbag, where it joined a couple changes of clothes. Such were the perils of dorm living, but if Brienne could make alternate plans for Arianne on such occasions, she could do the same. “Don’t tell me I made plans to stay at Delta Sigma for the wrong days.”

“No,” Brienne replied with an air of realization. “No, I _was_ expecting him tonight. I’m still expecting him. Tonight.”

“Well, enjoy yourself. I know I would.” Arianne grinned openly when the flush on Brienne’s cheeks and neck managed to turn even redder. It perhaps wasn’t the most poetic of faces, but those blushes had certainly stirred the affections of Arianne’s heart and that meant she liked to tease her like she did any of her many cousins. 

She hadn’t known what to make of the hulking girl when they’d met in person on move in day, though it had been a happy accident that they had some friends in common; her cousin Elia had spoken warmly of the girl, so Arianne had been hopeful they’d get along well. 

Though they had traded emails before meeting, sharing what supplies they would bring, what their daily habits were like, Arianne had no way of expecting the strange dual nature of Brienne Tarth. At first glance, the girl was shy, polite, a bit unassuming, but then Brienne would turn her assumptions on their head by talking about the latest heroic fair in which she’d set a savage beatdown on an opponent, let out a surprisingly witty retort or show some insanely good soccer skills on the field. Arianne admired that especially as Brienne had a particularly fantastic set of legs. 

Arianne would never be one to dip in the company ink, so to speak, but it’s not as if she would even get a chance considering the biggest surprise of all: Brienne’s soulmate, Jaime. 

It had definitely thrown her for a loop when Brienne had posted up a photo of Jaime and herself at some school dance or another. The guy was absolutely gorgeous, even with the competition of a long stretch of Brienne’s leg visible through a pleasantly high slit on her dress. Brienne had muttered something about him having to convince her to wear it, but it was inconsequential. Arianne could still remember being thunderstruck at seeing the pair in print, but was even more so when they were together in person; she’d never seen a man more besotted with a woman than Jaime Lannister with Brienne Tarth. 

Of course, it hadn’t taken long to see that they made perfect sense that way. They were the kind of soulmates people wrote stories about, the antidote to the sad tales of soulmates who could only be passing ships in the night, the ones who gave up before finding their match or found them wanting in unfortunate ways. People, if they knew what was right for them, wanted the kind of soulmate pairing that Brienne and Jaime had managed to find. 

Also, seriously, the man was really fucking hot. 

Arianne shook herself from her thoughts to find Brienne eyeing her warily. Taking a quick glance around, Arianne frowned to see the same surroundings she’d left behind that morning: neat as a pin and utterly unsexy at that. “I… do you need anything?”

“Uh… no?” Brienne also took a perplexed look around the room. “What do you mean?”

“You know, candles. Flowers? Perfume? Twinkly lights?” Arianne asked with a teasing grin. “It’s been months since you’ve gotten to see each other. I’ve got things if you want to romance it up a bit.”

“Oh. Oh,” Brienne said, her generous mouth pursing cutely. “No. We aren’t really, I meant to say-”

“Brienne, I know it’s a sexy time visit, don’t try to think you’re pulling one over on me,” Arianne admonished her lightly. 

Brienne mouthed _sexy time_ seemingly to herself before shaking her head. “That’s not what I mean, you’re right, we are… it’s a special weekend, yes. But Jaime and I aren’t… super romantic? Wait, no, that sounds wrong. I didn’t mean it that way.”

The poor girl, Arianne didn’t think she’d ever seen her without a blush for long.

“We are. He is, really, a lot more than me.” Brienne fingered the pretty little sword dangling at her neck. “If I did that stuff, he’d probably wonder what was wrong, I’ve never been any kind of flowery, I guess? At least without him goading me into it.”

Brienne trailed off with an affectionate scowl. Arianne could only wonder how she managed that. 

“Well, you do what suits you,” Arianne said graciously. “Just give me a call when it’s all clear and give my love to Jaime.”

“I’ll give him your regards,” Brienne replied with a hint of sly look. Arianne chuckled; she adored the girl. Brienne was pulling the door open for her, looking a little eager, when a familiar noise came from her desk. Brienne groaned loudly. “What now?”

“Maybe it’s Jaime?” Arianne asked, following Brienne to the computer and peering over her shoulder to the incoming video chat. 

“Not possible,” Brienne muttered, opening the call to reveal a pretty redhead that looked to be in the throes of panic.

“Ohmygods, I’m so glad you’re there, Brienne!” 

“Sansa, she’s a friend from home,” Brienne said over her shoulder. “Sansa, this is Arianne, my roommate.”

Arianne waved while the girl on the screen pulled at her thick braid and gave a half-distracted nod.

“Sansa, what’s wrong?” Any irritation that had been in Brienne’s voice moments earlier had evaporated and turned to concern. “Is everything all right?”

Sansa waved her arms around. “Yes. No. I guess. I don’t know!”

Brienne lifted her own hands in supplication. There was a familiar sort of air about her now and Arianne pondered exactly how many such calls she gotten from Sansa. Probably enough as she didn’t say anything more, instead waiting until the other girl took several breaths, at last settling down enough to speak in more than exclamations. 

“Theon and I, we,” Sansa took in a big gulp of air, her cheeks puffing out. “We decided it’s time.”

“Ah,” Brienne said quietly. 

“We talked about it. A lot, like you suggested. And now that he’s got his own place, we actually have the privacy for it, so…” Sansa paused as Brienne made a small strangled noise. When Brienne didn’t add anything, she continued, “I know you said I should be realistic for the first time, but Theon’s trying you know? He told me he bought a bunch of stuff to make it really nice and pretty and, gods, I love him Brienne. I love him a lot. But I’m also starting to get a little scared? Does that make any sense?”

“Yeah, it does,” Brienne said gently. 

“So you were scared, too?” Hope and hesitation warred on Sansa’s face. “Even though it was Jaime?”

Brienne sighed. “Of course. But as long as you know what you both want, and that sense of being scared doesn’t outweigh everything else, it’s something special instead.”

“Will you, do you mind…” Sansa trailed off as she finally appeared to realize that it wasn’t only Brienne before her. “Oh, hello.”

“Hi,” Arianne replied with a slanted smile. Brienne startled when she spoke. “Sorry, didn’t know when I could chime in. But I can if you want.”

Brienne looked reluctant. “I don’t kn-”

“Yes,” Sansa said with a greedy nod. “You’re Arianne, right?”

“The one and only.” 

“Brienne’s told me about you, I think you could definitely help with this.”

Arianne raised a single brow at in Brienne’s direction. “What have you been telling this young lady about me?”

“Nothing bad,” Sansa insisted. “She just said you’re a lot like our friend Margaery, and Margaery is great. Have you met her yet?”

“No, but consider me intrigued.” Arianne pulled over the wooden chair from her desk on the other side of the room. “So loop me in, kid, who’s Theon?”

“My soulmate.”

“Psh, you’ll be fine.” Arianne waved her hand in the air, but stilled when Brienne gave her a sort of grimace. “Not fine?”

“Theon’s fine. Theon’s great,” Brienne corrected herself. “Just… Sansa has some difficulties with trust, so it’s not an altogether simple situation. And it wasn’t for me either.”

Sansa gave a sad sort of sigh from her end. 

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Arianne said seriously. With that in mind, she added, “I’m not sure how I can help then. My first time was a fumbling mess in the back of a station wagon. Poor Daemon. He certainly tried, but it wasn’t one for the ages. Pleasant enough, though, I’ll give him that.”

“Well, Brienne’s was really romantic, Jaime said so.”

Arianned laughed. “Did he?” 

Brienne rolled her eyes. “He would.”

“You guys are so great together,” Sansa said earnestly. “Please Brienne? You’re the only one I can ask, really. It’s not like I can go to my mother.”

“I did,” Brienne pointed out.

“Yeah, well, she didn’t labor with you for thirteen hours, so we come at this from different perspectives.”

“That’s fair,” Brienne admitted. She looked around the room, staring a bit in the distance before looking back at Arianne and Sansa. “Okay, all right.”

Sansa clapped her hands together cheerfully. Arianne did it on the inside.

“Jaime and I… well, it’s like I told you, we talked about it beforehand. We knew we wanted to and we’d started, you know, getting a little intense,” Brienne squirmed and then stopped herself just as quickly. Arianne gave her an encouraging nod. “It was getting really intense, so we decided that if we were going to, then we were going to do it right. That’s why I told you what I did, I think it made the biggest difference. It was almost… exactly two years ago.”

“Two years!? But that’s - ” Sansa’s eyes went huge with shock. 

“We didn’t publicize it,” Brienne said with a shrug. “It was ours.”

“Wooooow.”

“Anyway, I talked to your mom, Jaime talked with Tyrion and we talked to each other, so even though I was scared, it wasn’t like I was scared of Jaime. Just of being vulnerable with someone for the first time, being _naked_ in front of someone for the first time. But when we finally were, it was mostly fun. And it felt really good.”

She drifted off, apparently done, though Sansa looked impatient and Arianne had to say, “You know that’s not what she means, right?”

Brienne looked back and forth between them again. “What?”

“Details!” Sansa exclaimed. Arianne pointed at the screen in camaraderie. 

With a tiny huff of a laugh, Brienne shook her head. “Fine. Fine. It was awkward at first. You know, the whole, do I take off my clothes, or do you? When do socks come off? Under the blanket or on top?

“Jaime was… wonderful. He knew that we couldn’t just, you know, go for it. So he got me… ready,” Brienne raised a hand and wiggled her fingers in the air. “I’d brought some lube and supplies, but we didn’t end of needing it by the time he finished. Or, I guess, I finished.”

“So hot,” Arianne said with a sigh. 

“It was,” Brienne added with a helpless grin. “And, uh, it went kind of quick the first time? In retrospect, it probably would have gone longer if he’d… finished before we started.”

At Sansa’s confused expression, Arianne clarified, “Hand job. Or blow job. Something to ease the tension before the main event.”

“Yeah, that,” Brienne agreed. 

“I can do that, yeah, good advice,” Sansa replied, a focused look in her eyes. “But did it hurt?”

A soft look came to Brienne’s pretty blue eyes. “If it did, I honestly don’t remember. There was just so much going on, Jaime’s hands on my body, the feel of his skin against mine, the way he felt pressed down on me. And he was looking right at me, we just looked right at each other and I remember watching his eyes close and his mouth fell open and then he opened his eyes again and he looked so happy. And I was so happy. It was… perfect.”

Nobody said anything for several seconds as Brienne remembered with a smile on her face. “And then he started shaking and his face went kind of funny and that was that.”

Arianne laughed loudly. Finally, something about the man that wasn’t flawless. 

Brienne grinned back at her.

“And that’s why we took the whole day,” Brienne finished with a little hard won wisdom. “After that, we were more comfortable, and we tried again. A few times. We talked to each other and we learned from each other, that’s really important. And it got a lot better for both of us.”

“That’s,” Sansa sighed as her shoulders relaxed down, “really romantic.”

“Yeah, I guess it was. I’m really lucky Jaime turned out to be my soulmate, ” Brienne sweetly agreed. “It might be different for you and Theon. Or maybe not. But it’ll be yours.”

Sansa finally nodded and quietly thanked them. She and Brienne said their brief goodbyes and Arianne waited until the screen went dark before she said, “I think you’re both really lucky.”

Brienne was staring off into the distance again, but simply said, “Thanks, Arianne.”

Arianne followed her line of sight and realized with a jolt as she saw the closed door that Jaime was probably due soon. “I should get out of here. You may not need to put up twinkly lights, but I’ll get out of the way if you want to get cleaned up from the gym before Jaime gets here.”

“Gym?” Brienne said confusedly. 

Laughing again, Arianne took her leave; she supposed Brienne was already in a headspace from which Jaime would reap rewards once he arrived.

###### 

“Funny. Face.”

Brienne gave him an embarrassed, helpless smile, standing at an advantage over Jaime as he sat at the bottom of her closet, among her shoes and clothes that had slipped from the hangers in their haste. His jeans were on his lap, but that was all of his own clothes that he was even somewhat wearing. 

“I did not make a funny face!” Jaime stood, tossing his jeans behind him. 

“You really did,” Brienne said with a chortle. She stepped away from the closet and stripped off her shirt. “You coming?”

“I was. Earlier,” Jaime muttered sarcastically. He was a bit annoyed to realize that he was still wearing his socks. Pulling them off, he followed after his girlfriend as she started to shimmy off her shorts. “Hold up, let me do that. I’ve been missing those legs something awful lately.”

“Didn’t seem to care earlier when they were around my ankles” Brienne said dryly, though she paused and then hiked her shorts up back to her hips. “I’m not sure you said hello at all.”

“It’s been nine weeks. Nine!” 

“Not even a hey, how have you been?”

She was slowly shaking her head, but the pleased grin on her face didn’t fool him. Jaime drew close and played with the tie at the front of her shorts and then brought up a hand to caress her breasts, satisfied to hear her pleased sigh. He brought his mouth up to hers, kissing her slowly, thoroughly, as he hadn’t thought to do when he first arrived. “You don’t regret it, do you?”

Brienned wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “You? Never.”

“It was,” Jaime groaned, “humiliatingly fast.”

“It was perfect,” Brienne countered. 

“Yeah,” Jaime said lowly as he removed her shorts, following them down to run his lips over her stomach, to kiss her left hip bone and then the right. He looked up at her as his hands ran over her thighs, ending with cupping in between. “Gotten even more perfect since then.”

Brienne’s head dropped back, the flush spreading to her shoulders, down her chest. He loved seeing it every damn time. Nudging her legs apart, he moved his hand to kiss her cunt, spreading her with his fingers and running his tongue up to her clit. 

“Jaime.” His name on her breath had him hard in seconds. But he didn’t speed along this time, challenging her silently, as she reached back and grasped at the edge of her bed when he focused on her clit, pulling it into his mouth and sucking greedily, fingers from one hand rubbing along the inside of her lips, one finger and then two moving inside her, his other hand clenching her ass. 

He could soon feel the familiar trembling of her thighs, nearly giving into a long denied orgasm, rudely interrupted by an unaware friend. Two, actually.

Remembering, Jaime pulled back slightly, licking along the faint seam at the top of her thigh, lightly running his hand along her cunt as he stood. Brienne gave him a dazed look as he leaned in to kiss along her jaw, then catching her earlobe between his teeth. Her hands let go of the bed, gripping at his shoulder and hip instead, their bodies flush with one another. 

“Missed you,” Jaime said softly. He kissed her again, pulling at her lip with his teeth, then mouthing at her jaw. 

“So why’d you stop?” That damned voice. Why had he stopped? He almost drifted back to his knees before recalling. 

“We don’t need to rush.” 

Brienne murmured an agreement, following as Jaime guided her down onto the bed, not resisting as he positioned her on her side, not asking why when he slid in behind her. From where he was, he hooked his chin over her shoulder, his right hand under her head as his left hand lightly pinched her nipples before soothing her breasts with the palm of his hand, lightly skimming the smooth muscles of her stomach again. Brienne nearly purred as she undulated her hips against his, his cock finding its place between her legs. 

_Did you ever think it’d be like this,_ he wanted to ask her, _after all the fumblings, my place or yours, blankets or no, did you ever think it’d be this easy?_

He said nothing aloud, just pressed his mouth against the back of her neck, dragging his lips along to rest on their sword on her shoulder blade. Brienne whined a little, impatient, until Jaime gasped against her skin, his hand pressing her back against him, finding himself unerringly inside of her, warm and clasped from outside and within. 

Brienne let out a long moan as he pulled back his hips and then pushed forward, almost lazily fucking her, the way he’d fantasized about all day before he’d walked in early and just seen her standing there, beautiful and everything he’d been yearning for for weeks. Intentions gone in a moment, instead grappling at each other desperately, needily. 

And then, a key in the lock. 

Jaime chuckled against the nape of her neck, Brienne laughing along with him, almost certainly aware of what was going through his mind. They continued their langourous, unhurried fucking as he skimmed his hands over her, over and over, not an inch of her freckled skin hidden from him. He took his time, whispering words against her neck, smiling at her answering hums, relishing in the trust she wordlessly gave him, her catching breath as he took her cunt in his hand again and brought her to the brink before retreating. She gave a grunt of disappointment, a keening want when he returned, driving her closer to the edge and then denying her again. 

“I love you. So much,” he told her as he eased forward, pulling their bodies back together with intent, her knee pulling up, her left hand over his, tangling as he started strumming his fingers over her clit with renewed fervor, the feel of his cock moving inside her, sliding along their knuckles. “I’m the lucky one. Me.”

“Me,” Brienne, of course, managing to disagree even as she came. She trembled and jerked in his arms, her moans the best sound in the world. She tightened on his cock, longer and longer than before. Hiccuping his name, stuttering her hips back as Jaime picked up speed, arm coming up to pull her chest back to him, his hips starting to move wildly, before stopping short, catching himself on the brink of release, barely holding himself together as she finished pulsing around him. Jaime traced his nose on the vast slope of her shoulder, kissing lightly, tasting her skin as he was tempted.

It was only a few moments before Brienne turned in his arms, pushing him to lie flat on his back, and rose over him, taking his cock back in smoothly. Her knees were tight against his sides, her hands resting on his chest as she rocked forward and back, squeezing her cunt around his cock with purpose, pulling groans from a place deep within him. Jaime watched as Brienne closed her eyes and dipped her head back, riding him as slowly as he’d started before. When he tried to reach up, to feel her skin, to run his hands over her breasts and stomach and hips, she slid her hands to his wrists and bent forward, pinning them down as she started to move just a little faster. 

It was maybe the desperate sounds he made, the way he tried to bring up his knees to thrust into her, impeded when she hooked her feet under his legs, but Brienne looked down at him and smiled, speeding up in slow increments that had Jaime almost writhing in need. It was nearly unbearable, the tight, wet heat of her, the brushing of her skin against his chest, rhythm slowly but surely coming faster and faster. And then Brienne said his name on a moan, coming again, grasping him along as he jerked from beneath her, hips bucking minutely but frantically, his whole body feeling like it was on fire as his mind went blank and white at the same time.

It was impossible to tell how much time passed, holding Brienne against his chest where she had collapsed, her breaths heaving in time with his own. His brain still felt fuzzy even when Brienne shifted up and partly off him, leaning on one elbow on the mattress, placing the other hand his chest, inclining in to kiss him. 

They stayed there, reluctant to part a moment sooner than necessary when Jaime finally found his train of thought again and said, “Hey.”

“Hmm.”

“Happy anniversary.” 

He could close his eyes and still hear her smile. “Happy anniversary.”

“Aren’t you glad I didn’t say sexiversary this time?”

Brienne’s laugh betrayed the wryness in her voice. “You just did.”

“Not the same,” Jaime said with a happy sigh. 

“Funny face,” Brienne said on a yawn.

“Oh, that’s not going to get old at all.”

They slowly eased into another position, Brienne moving to one side, where she lay so that they were face to face, her thigh going over his as he wiggled closer. He stared as she slowly blinked the best blue eyes in the world, sleepy and sated, her voice mumbly. “I don’t want you to go.”

How strange, her ability to say that so easily now, considering how it started between them. The way they lay naked on top of her bed, without a thought to cover up, bare to each other in every way imaginable. All the ways he could have lost her before they found one another, and yet she wanted him here. So many words and decisions that were easy now not because of their soul marks, but what they chose to be to each other. “But I’m here for two more days.”

“Not enough.”

“You got me there,” Jaime said softly, smoothing back her hair.

She had him forever, as far as he was concerned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The only thing more enraging for Cersei than watching her father fawn over Brienne Tarth was the knowledge that the other girl had no idea that he was doing it. So it was at first opportunity that she said, in a pleasant sort of way, “Your best friend is a shitty kisser, did you know?”
> 
> “That’s funny,” Brienne responded in a bored tone that sounded foreign coming out of her mouth, but was familiar nonetheless, “he said the same thing about you.”


	6. Chapter 6

Jaime and Brienne weren’t the first to be married, not even close. That honor belonged to Sam and Gilly, the pair eloping just after Gilly’s graduation and settling down in Oldtown as Sam finished off his schooling. Little Sam was born within the year, making him just old enough to balance a pair of rings on a small pillow, his mother sweetly coaching him on not picking his nose as he made his way down the aisle. 

Sansa and Theon came next, another wedding that took place between semesters, but theirs on the winter holiday during Sansa’s junior year. Robb had been best man, Brienne maid of honor, a gesture she returned when she put a flower crown on Sansa’s head three years later and asked her to be the matron of honor, love and beauty for her wedding to Jaime. 

Renly and Loras followed, a beautiful ceremony taking place in a rose garden, Margaery their lone attendant and sniffling delicately as they exchanged vows. Jaime teased her, saying that meant Margaery was primed to be their flower girl, too, before Brienne pretended to punch him in the arm and offered her the flower crown Jaime had won just for that purpose. 

Not bound by semesters or summer breaks, Jaime and Brienne chose a spring day, planning for a small affair, close friends and family only.

Things... did not turn out as they had expected.

###### 

If the town car that picked them up at the airport hadn’t given her an idea of how big the wedding had become, it was certainly the grand estate that they drove up to that tipped Catelyn Stark off. She traded a bewildered look with her husband as their three youngest deigned to look up from their phones and stared out the window with them.

“I can’t begin to imagine how Selwyn managed…” Catelyn stopped speaking, feeling foolish for even starting the thought when the answer was so clear. She and Ned traded a more knowing, exasperated glance as they both said, “Lannisters.”

After they checked in and the rest of her family was shuffled off to join the wedding brunch in session, Catelyn was given instructions on where to find Brienne’s bridal suite, assured of her direction when she found Sansa and Margaery Tyrell standing at the door, calling for the bride in question.

Margaery knocked on the door and, after a moment, again with more purpose. “Brienne, we’re going to fall behind schedule. Do you really want to have to explain why to Genna and her insane filofax?”

Brienne’s frustrated voice came clear through the door, but if any of the women thought she was speaking to them, they were proven wrong when it opened and a half-naked Jamie Lannister was shoved out in the hallway to join them. The door was then shut firmly behind him.

“You are not supposed to be here,” Sansa told him through clenched teeth. 

Jaime only answered with a grin and sauntered off down the hall, carefree as anything. 

Catelyn saw him again at brunch, after she left Brienne in the capable hands of Sansa, Margaery, a frightfully focused Genna Lannister Frey and a tardy Arianne Martell, who had apparently been in a town car behind the Starks. Jaime, thankfully no longer in just his underwear, was sitting next to his brother, Theon and Jon. As far as she could tell, two groomsmen were missing and she took an anxious look around the room for Robb, relieved to find him sitting with his father and Selwyn Tarth. 

She dropped a kiss on her eldest son’s head and joined them. “Robb, dear, I’m so glad you made it back in time. And my goodness, Selwyn, this is - ”

“Over the top, I know,” Selwyn immediately agreed. He made a show of looking at the expanse of seating and the many people already partaking of a ridiculous amount of food. “I know my little girl didn’t expect such a grand affair and I thought Genna might get a little carried away, but…”

He shrugged and finished, “After this, Brienne can’t deny she knows what she’s marrying into.”

“She’s never denied it,” Robb said around a mouthful of bacon, “I think it matters more that she doesn’t care.”

“Don’t speak with your mouth full, Robb,” Catelyn fretted and pushed a napkin in his direction. “But I suppose you’re right. I’m just glad that Sansa got married before this, who knows what ideas she might have come up with for her own wedding otherwise. At least in our case it was just a matter of arranging for a small group to get to Winterfell for the ceremony.”

She leaned in after a moment, speaking to Robb in quiet tones. “Is everything all right? I was surprised you risked going out of town so near the wedding.”

Robb looked out over the crowd, stopping when the bridal half of the wedding party made their entrance. Standing, he gave her an absentminded kiss on the cheek and said, “Yeah, there was something I had to handle. It should be good now.”

Catelyn watched him as he went and hoped against hope that this time maybe it was.

###### 

Fasts had been broken and guests shuffled off to settle into their rooms and then enjoy the grounds or to mingle amongst themselves while the wedding party got ready for the event in question. Tyrion had made quick work of putting on his suit, Jaime left in his dust when Tywin pulled him aside for a very serious looking and likely horribly irritating father-son discussion. 

He found Sansa outside the sept, flower crown daintily perched on her head, as she spoke politely to some people and glared at one in particular. Tyrion saw what she saw and sighed. 

“I should have known she wouldn’t let this go, not after father refused to fund her ‘absurd arrangement’ with Oberyn and Ellaria,” Tyrion muttered to Sansa. “Of course not, why be a normal person at your brother’s wedding when you can be spectacle instead?”

“It’s not white, it’s _ivory_ ,” Sansa said mockingly. She followed Cersei with a narrow look, the other woman in a figure hugging dress, definitely white in Tyrion’s opinion, weaving about the others guests before the entrance to the sept opened. “Don’t worry, I’ve got my best man on it.”

Tyrion waited, experience assuring him that Sansa did truly have it in hand. They both smiled in satisfaction as the normally sure-footed Arya appeared as if from nowhere and stumbled into Cersei, managing to pour a frankly gigantic goblet of red wine down the front of her dress. 

“Oops,” Arya said sweetly, shaking out the dregs into Cersei’s cleavage as she froze in horror. 

Catelyn swooped in, her chastisement in Arya’s direction blatantly hollow, grabbing onto Cersei’s arm to drag her away before she could protest, or scream, or do anything else particularly Cersei-like, saying, “Oh, dear, that is a shame, let’s see if we can find you something else, shall we?” 

Tyrion looked up at Sansa and her content expression, and warmly said, “Normally I don’t give in to regrets, but I find myself disappointed that Theon scooped you up so early. We could have given a real relationship a try, seeing as our fake one went so well.”

“We really would have been something, I agree,” Sansa said back with a grin.

###### 

The sept finally opened, allowing the abundance of guests to enter and shoulder their way into the seats. No one had seen such a varied crowd before, distant family from Westeros and friends by way of the North, college friends that came from all over the land, and excited families from the isle of Tarth that Selwyn invited once he saw their original numbers overwhelmed by Lannister business associates. The number of Freys was, of course, ludicrous. The party from Dorne - Cersei sitting among them, looking sour in a ruffly pink frock that Catelyn must have dug out of the lost and found bin - took up two whole rows. 

Margaery peeked through a crack in the door, watching as Jaime and Tyrion walked to the front of the sept, Jaime ducking down so his brother could fix his tie. She closed the door softly and took her place beside her assigned groomsman. 

“You look nice,” Robb said in an undertone.

“I’m dressed identically to the other bridesmaids,” Margaery replied dismissively. 

“I know, I see that, but… you look great, is all I’m saying. That crown, it suits you.”

Margaery looked him up and down and then away. “Nice tan. That Essos sun really does the trick, doesn’t it?”

“Marg - ”

“We’re up next, come along.”

Behind them, Arianne was sizing up her escort, wondering how exactly the brash guy from Brienne’s stories had snaked a coveted spot amongst the bridal party. Finally, she just asked.

Bronn gave her a sharp grin and said, “The Lannister brothers have racked up favors from me for years, I figured what it wouldn’t hurt to cash one in this weekend, seeing as groomsmen absolutely get the pick of the room.”

Arianne frowned thoughtfully and nodded. “Good call.”

“So what do you say, you interested?”

She hummed and smiled and said nothing. 

“All right,” Bronn led her to the end of the aisle and tucked her arm in his, “I’m game.”

###### 

It went as ceremonies usually do. They at least got that part right.

###### 

Outside, while the guests were plied with afternoon cocktails, the sun cast a warm glow over the group on the front lawn. The photographer spent an inordinate amount of time arranging Jaime and Brienne’s poses and then of those around them before taking even the first shot. 

Margaery stood more stiffly than she would have liked, Robb’s warm hands at her waist and his chest brushing her back occasionally. It was far too familiar a feeling, seeing as she’d only experienced it for the first time after the combined stag and hen night earlier in the week. Fixing her shoulders, she stood up straighter and curtly said, “Could you not lean so far forward?”

She immediately regretted asking when she felt his breath on the back of her neck when he answered, “Can we talk, please?”

“Can’t talk, taking pictures,” Margaery said through gritted teeth that she hoped approximated a smile.

“He’s fixing Brienne’s dress again. Gods, I can’t believe they managed to get her in a dress for this.” He paused and flexed his fingers lightly, as if remembering himself. “You’re right, I went to Essos. But not for the reason you think.”

“Oh, so you don’t have a soulmate hidden away there?” Her voice was far from the airy, uncaring tone she’d aimed for, landing somewhere brittle instead. 

“Yes, Talisa’s there. But she’s not hidden. And she’s always going to be there, in Essos, I mean.” Robb sighed and Margaery shivered despite herself. “And I’m always going to be here. This is home, my family, my friends, y-”

“Pictures,” Margaery said, a little shrilly, and Robb went silent as they held still for the camera once more. 

“That is curious,” Arianne told Bronn quietly upon observing the exchange and he just laughed under his breath. “I really did miss a lot by not coming up sooner, didn’t I?”

“Fucking idiots, the whole lot of them.” He put his mouth to her ear and whispered, “We’ll find them in a private corner by the end of the night. Two dragons says I’m right.”

“No bet, I’m not an idiot,” Arianne whispered back. 

“How about finding a private corner for us?”

“Like I said, not an idiot.”

###### 

Margaery dodged her pursuer as best she could, considering they were technically paired up for the evening. She hated herself a little for it, at her inability to summon the icy grace she had practiced over the last few days, despite Brienne’s loyal protestations that surely Robb had a reasonable explanation for catching the first flight to Volantis the day after…

Well. The day after. 

But Margaery was a Tyrell, and she _was_ poised and politely restrained and distantly amused at all times. She could be that again, no matter how much she’d found herself softening in Robb Stark’s presence; the last few years had given her plenty of practice in shoring her defenses, between their shared post-graduate classes, research sessions in the library, debating their own preferred engineering programs over drinks. No, Margaery was certain. That was now over and she would be much better off. 

Still, when Margaery saw him coming in her direction again, she squeezed between the guests headed to the reception and might have even hidden behind a plant or two.

###### 

The newlyweds finally joined the reception, their entrance heralded by an orchestra that Catelyn _knew_ hadn’t been part of the original plans, confirmed when Jaime and Brienne paused at the doorway, looked at each other and attempted to turn back around, though Genna was there to catch them. 

If they had planned on eating any of the delicious dinner, they were disabused of the notion by the simply alarming number of people in the receiving line.

###### 

“I should have taken that wager,” Arianne said as she leaned in toward Bronn. As far as she could tell, Margaery had succeeded in shaking off Robb at every turn, though only barely. Even now, during the father-daughter dance, she could see Margaery sidling away from his approach. “You’re sure about the two of them?”

“Believe me,” Bronn replied as he refilled his drink with a heavy hand, “I always know.”

“That’s too bad, it does seem the right environment for a romance, never mind that Jaime and Brienne would have run screaming if they knew Genna would arrange all this.”

“As would the rest of us,” Bronn agreed. 

Arianne considered the situation as Jaime cut in to dance with his bride, saying something that made her flush and visibly relax despite the eyes of the reception on them. As little time she’d been able to spend with Brienne’s oldest friends, she knew enough to piece a suspicion together, making quick work of a plan before standing and holding out her hand to Bronn. “Care to join in a mission for the sake of love?”

“I’d rather for the sake of a twenty,” Bronn shrugged, “but sure.”

###### 

Margaery had been stalled by Arianne Martell for all of two minutes before she realized the game. It was too late, however, because by the time Margaery caught sight of him in the corner of her eye, led along by Bronn, Robb had already snagged her hand and left them behind. 

Robb quickly brought her along to the dance floor before she could resist. One hand held hers and other went to the small of her back, pulling her in so his mouth was to her ear.

“One dance, okay?” He touched his cheek to hers and Margaery’s eyes shut involuntarily. “Just one so I can explain and if you don’t want to talk to me after that, I’ll understand.”

The tension in his shoulders eased under her hand when Margaery only nodded jerkily in response.

“Okay. All right. You’re going to see, if you haven’t already, that I’m going to mess up before I get things right. I’m not proud of it and I’d like to think I’ve gotten better over the years, but,” Robb shook his head and sighed, “this was something I wanted to get right.”

“Sleeping with me and leaving the country immediately after is not a testament to your improvement,” Margaery replied shortly. 

“No, it’s not, but I didn’t see another way. I should have told you, but I didn’t want to promise something until I could say that I closed that door for good. I had planned it, I had a flight after the wedding, but then, you know… what happened, happened. 

“Then I was there and I realized that we both closed the door a long time ago, we just never admitted it.” Robb leaned back and waited until Margaery looked him in the eye. “She’s been a part of my life for almost ten years, Margaery. We share a soulmark, and we tried to make it work and then to let it go, that same cycle over and over, not that it’s done either of us any favors.”

Margaery tipped forward to place her chin on his shoulder, if only to look away from him. “I don’t care about soulmarks, Robb. Never have.”

“I know you don’t, that’s one of my favorite things about you. When we were growing up, before this, I never thought I’d have favorite things about you, but I do. All the time we’ve spent together since you walked into our dynamics course, talking to you, falling asleep on your couch after studying late, that lousy time you tried to get me to do yoga.” He laughed faintly and she couldn’t help but smile at the memory. “You don’t care about soulmarks and I care just enough that I know it’s important that I’ve found someone that I love more than the person the universe said I should be with.” 

She went still in his arms. 

“It’s important enough that I needed to see my friend and tell her goodbye, so I could come back free to make my own choice. For you. Because I thought it hurt losing her, but the thought of losing you is so much fucking worse. In all the times I tried with other people, none of it ever felt right, until now.” Robb’s voice had gone a little shaky and his arms tightened around her. Margaery found herself blinking rapidly to keep eyes clear, trying and failing to focus on Jaime and Brienne as they swayed by. “So, I’m asking if you want to try, too.”

Finding words to answer was difficult when her throat had gone so dry. If Margaery thought the Tyrell poise had been out of reach before, it was completely nonexistent now; she found herself clinging back to Robb, who had set his temple against hers and took a shuddering breath. But she’d admit there was something to be said about Stark bravery when Robb said, voice scared and uncertain as the song finally ended, “Please say something.”

Margaery swallowed, held him more firmly and quietly replied, “Just keep dancing.”

###### 

Confetti. Fireworks. A luxury car drove the newlyweds away.

(At minimum it was better than the horse-drawn carriage that Genna had originally suggested.)

###### 

The reception carried on for hours after their departure, but even that had to come to a close. The older Starks had turned in earlier, as had Sam and his family, ready to tuck little Sam into bed and get some sleep. Renly and Loras had wandered off with the Dorne group in search of a decent after hours club. The rest of them sat themselves around a table, ties loosened, feet up on chairs, and heels kicked off. Together, they toasted to the freshly married pair. 

And they argued over who was right, of course. 

“All right, show of hands, who here was actually aware that the two of them were defiling each other almost all of their senior year?” Tyrion, clearly believing he was the only one, set his wine down firmly at the responses. “Sansa, you little fibber, you did not.”

“Well, Brienne told me later. That counts.” Sansa looked at Theon, who nodded in automatic support. Next to him, Jon shook his head slowly at both of them. 

“It certainly doesn't, put your hand down. As for you, Margaery - “

She smirked at him from where she was leaning back into Robb’s shoulder. “I suspected from the beginning, but I knew by the holidays.”

Tyrion eyed her beadily before allowing, “You get half points.”

He sat back and finally saw Bronn next to him with his hand in the air, smile sly, obviously satisfied with himself. 

“Oh, stuff it, you see sex everywhere, Bronn.” Rolling his eyes, Tyrion picked his wine glass back up. 

“It’s a condition, I’ll admit. But it doesn’t mean I’m wrong. And I do know, for your information. I can tell you - to the day - when those two finally started fucking each other’s brains out.”

“Really? When?” Tryion drawled.

Bronn looked up and scratched his chin thoughtfully, before decidedly saying, “Last week of October, the day after we had our little trip to school in the middle of the night.”

Tyrion’s mouth dropped open.

“I might not be a clever little fuck like you, but I can put things together. She was walking funny as anything the next day. And he was strutting around like a fucking cock of the walk. Felt kind of proud of myself, when I figured it out, don’t think my vandalism ever had any altruistic purpose to it before. Or since.”

Arianne leaned forward, charmed despite herself. “Vandalism?”

“Yeah, we set off cherry bombs in the toilets, fucked up those pipes properly, I would have only done a few but Lannister here got carried away. Turns out he did it so Jaime could have some private time with his lady.”

“That was you?” Robb nearly doubled over laughing, Margaery watching him from over her shoulder, a soft look on her face. “So they could have sex? Are you kidding?” 

Tyrion gave them a defiant look. “Do you know how insufferable my brother was? I was genuinely concerned something might rupture if he waited any longer. Whether it was in his head or his pants, I didn’t want to find out. Not that I wasn’t a little sorry about it later. I had to learn to _knock_ from there on out.”

“How awful for you, having to practice basic courtesies.” As she said it, Margaery exchanged an arch look with Sansa.

“Yes, terrible,” Sansa agreed drolly. 

“He didn’t move out until he left for Lannisport, you have no idea how much I suffered. And they have not gotten any better about it,” Tyrion insisted, and threw back the last of his wine. “Please don’t ask me how I know.”

“I believe you,” Arianne told him, “there was one weekend where Jaime did _not_ warn of an impending visit and I walked in on something… very interesting. And it took me a while to realize, but I’m pretty sure he was hiding in a closet at least once.”

Scoffing, Tyrion said, “Trust me, if you ever thought Jaime was hiding under a bed or in a closet or behind a door, he was. He absolutely was.”

“Well, I never caught them, in spite of my attempts,” Margaery giggled, though that was probably from Robb groaning and hiding his face in her neck. “Can you blame me? Arianne, I expect details.”

“And you will get them,” Arianne promised. 

“Well, enough about things that would probably scar us for life,” Jon said hastily, and lifted a glass in the air. He waited until everyone had refilled their own glasses and raised them to match. “To Brienne and Jaime. Married, and now very far away, for all our sakes. Gods know what they’re getting up to now.”

They all laughed in agreement and drank to that.

###### 

“Get it off, get it off, ow, Jaime - ”

“Hold still, almost… got it!”

Brienne took her first deep breath in what felt like literal hours. Were _actual_ literal hours she realized, and threw the offending contraption away from her. “Never again.”

“You’re telling me,” Jaime mused, looking at the pinched tips of his fingers, victims of a multitude of tiny clasps. “How women do this, I’ll never know.”

“And you will never know, because I’m never wearing a damned corset ever again for the rest of our lives,” Brienne groaned, rubbing a hand over the red marks that it had left on her skin. “I thought your Aunt Genna liked me.”

“Genna loves you, but she also really loves frilly shit. I did warn you.” Jaime kicked at the abandoned gown at the foot of the bed as Brienne face planted onto the mattress. He looked on with jealousy, hurrying to toe off his shoes and socks and flinging his tuxedo jacket in the direction of an armchair, not particularly caring if it made it or not. He fell back on the bed with a groan of his own as Brienne lifted her face up to look over. 

“I remember wanting a small wedding,” she said wonderingly. “Do you remember that? I could have sworn we agreed on a small, intimate wedding.”

“The word intimate sounds familiar,” Jaime agreed. 

Brienne smiled weakly, though it grew in sincerity as Jaime grabbed her out flung hand and brought it to his lips. 

“Hello, wife.”

“Hello, husband.”

They grinned at each other, a little foolishly and with no little blushing on both their parts. 

Jaime looked at the ceiling, a thoughtful expression on his face. “I think… I think once my father put together that you and I were the only ones who would give him an even somewhat normal wedding, he threw his full weight behind it. How else would he remind the general public of the incomparable Lannister wealth in the most absurd way possible?”

“I wouldn’t say absurd, just extravagant,” Brienne replied. 

“Did we or did we not spend the day in a chateau that he let Genna book entirely?”

Brienne opened her mouth and then closed it without forming an argument. 

“We can take some of the blame, we could have asked more questions,” Jaime sighed. “But it was so much easier not to.”

“It really was,” Brienne stretched as she said it, working her shoulders and settling her cheek onto a pillow. She watched as Jaime struggled out of his shirt, giving up on the buttons and sitting up to pull it and his undershirt over his head before wiggling out of his pants. He collapsed back next to her and took her hand again, nestling back into the pillow and closing his eyes. 

“Jaime?”

“Hmm?”

“It’s been a really long day.”

“I know, I was there.”

“No, I mean…”

Jaime looked back over at Brienne. His wife, clad only in a pair of white silky underwear, reddened indentations on her back and flank and beautifully blue eyes soft and hopeful. He was laying there beside Brienne, his _wife_ , only wearing a pair of specially bought underwear of his own and yet - 

“I’m so tired,” Brienne said, almost on a whine.

“Oh, gods, me too,” Jaime said with a rush of relief.

“I’m sorry?” Brienne winced as spoke. 

“Don’t be. Or I am, too. I don’t know. But this whole damned day,” Jaime yawned and shook his head, “between the breakfast and the ceremony, then the pictures and the -” another yawn “- reception and the dancing and the people, and I’m _starving_ , I didn’t get to eat a damned thing all afternoon - ”

“And it looked so good!” Brienne said with a fervent nod. “How did we not eat?”

“Hells if I know. I really tried. But between all that and hardly sleeping last night - ”

“That is your fault, though,” Brienne propped up on her elbows, “I didn’t tell you to sneak into my room. We were supposed to spend it apart.”

Jaime had the grace to look abashed, but still sounded somewhat defiant when he said, “I had to.”

“You had to sneak into my room,” Brienne said flatly. “I was sleeping and you had to interrupt it.”

“Yes.”

“ _Why_?”

“Because…” Jaime hemmed and hawed, feeling slightly guilty but unable to find the regret in waking Brienne up from a deep sleep with his mouth between her legs. Or the way she looked in a moonlit room and unfurled under his hands, the sounds she had made when he’d moved up, her legs wrapped tight around his waist, then later with one leg over his shoulder as he drove into her and later still as she had rolled her hips above him. Morning had come too quickly between the times they’d repeatedly reached for each other. 

“Because?” Brienne prompted him.

“It was the… last time, you know?” He finally admitted reluctantly. Brienne gave a truly confused glance at him, then the bed they were in and their own half-naked forms. “Not the last time ever, sex-wise, but you know, the last time we’d get to sneak around.” 

Brienne shut her eyes and put her face in her free hand. _My soulmate, ladies and sers_ , she quietly rued to herself. 

“Come on, look at us. _Married_. We’re going to be together for the rest of our lives and I can’t exactly sneak into a room that we’re sharing.”

“We’ve been sharing a room for the last three years, Jaime,” Brienne’s voice, muffled into her palm, was drier than the Dothraki sea.

“Yeah, but you’re my wife and I’m your husband, you have to have sex with me, it’s the law,” Jaime said on a laugh when Brienne halfheartedly glared at him. “When are we ever going to have sneaky sex again?”

“We’ll figure it out,” Brienne replied with a tired sigh. “I don’t know how, but I know you and at some point, I’m going to find myself with my pants around one ankle, desperately hoping we aren’t found before we’re done.”

“Mmm, half-naked sex,” Jaime agreed contentedly.

“Horrifying-your-brother-in-his-kitchen sex, you mean.”

Jaime chuckled and turned on his side to face her. “What about shower sex?”

“I’ll put it on the to-do list,” Brienne said with a half-smile.

“There are so many kinds,” Jaime said happily, burrowing into the soft mattress with his shoulder. “Couch sex. Slow sex. Quick sex. End of the bed sex. Car sex.”

“Nope,” Brienne stopped him, “I had a lump on the top of my head for weeks, no car sex. Ever again.”

“Fine.” Jaime couldn’t argue, he’d almost put his foot through a window that same time. “What if I buy a truck?”

Brienne laughed, her grin wide even as she shook her head. 

“I’ll take that as a yes. Truck sex, then. What else?”

She hummed before sleepily saying, “Just waking up sex.”

“Swing sex.”

“Mid-day sex.”

“Outdoor sex.”

“Jaime - ”

“Okay, fine, an-hour-away-from-the-nearest-person outdoor sex.”

“That I can do.”

He laughed again, softly. “What else?”

“Counter-top sex.”

“On the floor sex.”

“Tied up sex.”

“Nice,” Jaime said with a smile that would have been sharper if he hadn’t been fading away. 

“Wall sex,” Brienne said, a little faintly.

“Waaaalll seeeex,” Jaime almost crooned the words, “How did I forget wall sex? I love wall sex.”

“I know.” Brienne shifted closer, facing him and tangling their hands, pulling one of Jaime’s legs between hers. “I’m sorry we’re not having wedding night sex.”

“Well, we had wedding day sex, I think that counts.”

“Yeah,” Brienne agreed drowsily. 

Jaime’s voice was starting to slur. “It’s all married sex anyway. We’ll have lots of time for that. Our whole lives. We’ll start… first thing in the… morning…”

They kept trading words, voices soon turning into indiscernible mumbles, Jaime drifting forward to rest his brow against Brienne’s, their hands clasped tightly, legs entwined. 

And so they slept.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My thanks, my sincere and overwhelming thanks to angel_deux once again, for giving me permission to play in her soulmarks universe. I have read a ton of fic over the last ten years and enjoyed a great deal of it, but hers was the first in a long time to inspire me to sit and write again. Angel_deux, you have no idea how much it means to me, thank you so, so much.


End file.
